Building Approvals — March | By the numbers
- Total dwelling approvals (including the private and public sectors) fell by 15.5% in March to 14,429 (seasonally adjusted) with the market forecasting a 12.5% decline. Last month, approvals increased by 19.1%.
- Through the year, total dwelling approvals have fallen by 27.3% (prior rev: -12.3%)
- Unit approvals fell by 29.4% (prior rev: +61.0%) in March to 5,716 to take the annual decline to -37.7% from -10.1%.
- Approvals for houses fell by 3.1% (prior rev: +3.5%) to 8,713, as the annual decline increased to -18.4% (prior rev: -14.3%)
- On a trend basis, total dwelling approvals declined by 0.6% in March, while the annual decline was 22.4%. House approvals fell by 1.5% in the month and by 15.0% through the year. Unit approvals lifted by 0.9% in March to be down by 31.2% for the year.
Building Approvals — March | The details
Total approvals fell for the 5th consecutive quarter over the three months to March, though by a relatively modest 0.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis. That reflected a 4.8% decline in house approvals, while unit approvals posted a 5.6% rise (click on the charts to expand).
On the available underlying detail (that is not seasonally adjusted), approvals declined for both houses and townhouses in Q1, while low-rise and high-rise unit approvals lifted modestly.
Turning to the state details, March saw heavy-scale declines for New South Wales and Victoria, reflecting volatility from capital city unit approvals. Queensland and South Australia also stepped lower but by much more moderate rates, while Tasmania posted a very strong increase in the month and Western Australia lifted moderately. The results are provided in the table, below.
Q1 was mixed, with gains in New South Wales (+8.3%), South Australia (+1.7%), Western Australia (+19.8%) and Tasmania (+1.2%). That was countered by heavy declines in Victoria (-9.2%) and Queensland (-8.5%).
The value of renovation work approved continued on its uptrend, lifting by 2.5% in March to $751m, with annual growth accelerating to 7.8%. By contrast, the value of non-residential work approved fell noticeably by 8.7% in March to $3.39bn and looks to be flatlining on a trend basis.
Building Approvals — March | Insights
The headline decline was sharper than anticipated, though stronger-than-expected outturns in January and February meant that Q1 was a relatively modest one. Notwithstanding, the level of approvals remains sharply lower on a year earlier, and as the chart (below) indicates, residential construction can be expected to decline sharply in 2019 and weigh notably on overall economic activity.
