Record house building in Australia
08 August 2015 by News Desk
The number of new houses being built in Australia has reached record levels in the past 12 months.
Over 220,400 new dwellings have been approved for construction in the 12 months to June, up from 195,302 compared to the same period in 2014, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“On average 154,000 new homes are built per year, but this has been falling short by between 2,000 and 14,000 homes of what is required each year over the past 10 years, creating a housing shortfall. However the approvals we have seen over the last twelve months will start to make a dent in the housing deficit, especially in Sydney,” said Nick Proud of The Property Council of Australia.
Despite reaching new record levels for the year, building approvals are showing the first signs of having peaked. Nationally the latest ABS Building Approvals were down 8.2 per cent in June 2015 in comparison to the previous month’s figure.
It is now vital to ensure as many approvals are converted to actual builds as possible to boost supply, especially in Sydney where rising prices have been mainly due to under supply, said Mr Proud. “Governments need to continue to focus on land release, improvements to development assessment and reform of inefficient taxes such as stamp duty to support continued supply.”
