This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE value of construction work completed fell 2.1% in the three months to September quarter to $41,372.4 million, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
With the exception of the non-residential sector, construction work done fell in the building, residential and engineering sectors.
Non-residential work gained 1.5% to $10.19 billion and is 29.9% higher than the same period last year.
On the other hand, the building sector declined 2.7% to $21.73 billion, residential work fell 6.1% to $11.54 billion and engineering was down 2.1% to $19.63 billion.
In the residential sector, Victoria recorded $3.2 billion of private sector activity and remains Australia’s number one state for residential construction.
Queensland came second with $1.952 billion in private sector residential building activity followed by New South Wales with $1.950 billion of activity.
The Urban Taskforce’s chief executive Aaron Gadiel said in terms of total private sector building activity (including commercial and retail developments), Victoria also was up first with $5.2 billion of activity and trailing behind was NSW with $4.2 billion and Queensland with $3.3 billion’s worth of activity.
Across Australia, there was a 2.3% seasonally adjusted fall in new home building activity.
Gadiel believes the market is in worst shape because the figure disguises what is happening in the private sector, because it includes the Federal Government public housing economic stimulus.
“Once these figures are taken out, new home building by the private sector fell by 7.1% – more or less cancelling out the previous quarter’s rise of 7.4%,” he added.
In seasonally adjusted terms, new home building in NSW dropped by 0.4% in the September quarter, while it fell by 9.4% in Victoria and fell by 16.5% in Queensland.
“Victoria’s 9.4% fall is a partial reversal of the 17.2% increase it experienced in the June quarter, while Queensland’s 16.5% fall merely reverses the 17.1% increase it experienced in the previous quarter.
“NSW’s relatively minor fall in residential building activity represents the already depressed level of activity in that state, particularly since the June quarter increase of 10.4% was modest in comparison with the other key states,” Gadiel said.
Gadiel said that NSW property development has been in serious decline since 2002.
“It’s time the major political parties started articulating coherent plans to get residential construction going again in NSW,” he concluded.
Australian Property Journal
