APPENDIX 2 MATERIALS USED IN HOUSE BUILDING REWEIGHT
CHANGES FROM DECEMBER QUARTER 2005
The Price Index of Material Used in House Building will be reweighted in December quarter 2005. From this time, the items and weights for the house building input index will be derived from reported values of each material used in selected representative houses in the three years ending 2002-03. The weighting pattern for each capital city index will reflect variations in prices for the cities as applied to an Australian average basket of house building materials, with some allowance for city specific building practices e.g. use of steel and timber materials in Perth and Adelaide.
DESCRIPTION OF METHODOLOGY
The updated weighting pattern was calculated using bill of quantities data for 2002-03 obtained from a quantity surveyor. More clearly, the bills of quantity were determined using data for the three years ending 2002-03, but were valued using 2002-03 prices. These quantities were price updated to 2003-04 and then benchmarked to ABS Building Activity Survey value data for 2003-04, including value data by capital city. These effective quantities were then price updated again to September quarter 2005. The resulting weighting pattern is set out in the table below.
Materials Used in House Building price index data appears in Tables 17 and 18 of this publication and in the electronic Tables 31 and 32 on the ABS web site, and will continue to be available in these formats from December 2005.
In addition, price index data will be available in a format aligning closely with the Australian Standard Method of Measurement of Building Works (Fifth Edition) backcast to 2002-03. Users of this index who are interested in discussing alternative data formats can contact Steve Whennan on Canberra (02) 6252 6251, or email <steve.whennan@abs.gov.au>