Building Activity Collection

The Building Activity Collection collects details on building jobs throughout Australia each quarter. Details about each selected job include the expected value of the job on completion, total value of work done on the job, floor area being created, and commencement and completion dates of the job.

The Building Activity Collection is answered by a selected group of businesses and individuals whose building jobs represent Australia's construction industry. Details are collected on over 30,000 building jobs throughout Australia each quarter.

Your participation in this survey provides us with data that is essential for producing statistics on Australia's building activity. Businesses and governments make decisions based on these statistics to address policy and planning issues on how to best support the Australian building industry.

These statistics are drawn upon by a wide variety of individuals and organisations in both the public and private sector, with major users including:

• Reserve Bank of Australia
• The ABS' National Accounts
• The Australian Government Treasury and the States and Territories treasuries
• State and Commonwealth Government departments and agencies
• Industry organisations and associations
• Market analysts and economists

Yes. Under the Census and Statistics Act 1905 you are obliged to provide the information requested by the ABS. All the information you provide will remain strictly confidential.

We recognise that you or your business may have been impacted by recent unprecedented events, including natural disasters or the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Our aim is to ensure that Australia has access to the best possible information on the social and economic impacts of these events. Your participation in our surveys at this time is critical in informing our country’s response.

By completing this survey, you help to ensure the results truly reflect the current state of the construction industry.

You can use the final comment box at the end of the survey form to provide extra information about circumstances impacting your building activity. You can also use this box to tell us about your current situation or business conditions and your expectations for the coming months, as well as any further comments on information you have provided in the survey.

We understand this is a difficult time and we are here to help. We will contact you if your survey participation is delayed, and we will help you if you are having difficulties.

Building jobs are selected to participate in the Building Activity Collection based on their characteristics, such as value and type of building. Once a building job has been selected in the Building Activity Collection, the job will continue to receive quarterly survey forms until the building job has been completed or abandoned.

Yes. The industry, business and government users of the statistics produced from this survey need the most accurate and timely information possible so they can make well-informed decisions which impact Australian businesses and communities.

We recognise that you or your business may have been impacted by recent unprecedented events, including natural disasters or the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. If your ability to respond to this survey has been impacted by these events, please contact us. If you'd like to speak to one of our team or need help providing the requested information, call us on 1800 650 316 and we will assist you.

Yes. We take the security of the information you provide to us very seriously. Your completed form and personal information will remain strictly confidential to the ABS. The information is used to calculate statistics and these are only released in the form of aggregated data. The information in this survey is collected under the authority of the Census and Statistics Act 1905. Under the Act, ABS staff are obliged to maintain the confidentiality and privacy of information provided.

We comply with the Australian Privacy Principles. If you believe we have breached these principles, please see the information on how to lodge a complaint about privacy matters, contained within our privacy policy.

No. There is no provision within the Census and Statistics Act 1905 to reimburse individuals, businesses or organisations for the cost of providing statistical information. In line with other national statistical organisations throughout the world, individuals, businesses and other organisations are asked to supply information for statistical purposes without compensation. It is only with the support of people like you that we can continue to produce the statistics that inform Australia's important decisions.

If you have received a reminder letter or email about completing the Building Activity Collection it is likely that you have returned the survey at the same time that we issued the reminder notice. If you wish to confirm this, please call us on 1800 650 316 and we will check the information against our records.

For this survey, you should have received a letter with a Form Access Code to access your survey form online, or an email asking you to call us to receive your Form Access Code. You can then set up, or log in to your ABS Survey Account and add your Form Access Code to access the survey form. The same account can be used for other ABS surveys.

Your account is a secure service that allows a survey to be accessed as many times as is needed before final submission. After submitting a survey you will not be able to access the contents. If you are concerned that you have provided incorrect information, call us on 1800 650 316 and we will assist you.

If you are unable to complete your survey online, or have not received the letter we sent you, call us on 1800 650 316.

If you have received a letter with a paper form, please complete the paper form and return it to us using the enclosed Reply Paid envelope. Alternatively, if you would like to complete this form online, call us on 1800 650 316.

For more information on completing our surveys online, help is available on our Survey Account Help page. This page provides assistance with technical difficulties and includes frequently asked questions which assist in creating and using the ABS Survey Account.

If you are having trouble creating or accessing your account, completing the survey online, or haven't received your Form Access Code, call us on 1800 650 316 and we will be happy to assist you.

If you would like more general information about participating in one of our surveys, please see our Survey Participant Information page.

We require information to be as accurate as possible. The more accurate the figures you supply, the more accurate the statistics will be. However, if accurate data is not readily available, careful estimates will be accepted.

Yes. We provide statistics free of charge on our website. Statistics produced from this survey are published in Building Activity, Australia and Construction Work Done, Australia, Preliminary.

Our website also provides additional and up-to-date information over and above our existing statistical releases to enhance understanding of the economic impacts of COVID-19, in Measuring the impacts of COVID-19.

For help, or more information about this survey, call us on 1800 650 316 during business hours. For help outside these hours, please leave a message with your contact details and we will call you back.

You can also use our online Business Surveys Contact Form to outline the details of your situation and we will be in touch

If you have participated in this survey, or any of our other surveys, we want to hear about your experience. We value your feedback and will use it to improve how we work with our survey participants.

You can use the final comment box at the end of this survey form to tell us about your experience participating in this survey, along with any suggested improvements to the form.

You can use our feedback form to provide us with feedback. For this survey, please select the option "Participation in an ABS Business Survey".