Building Activity, Australia

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Provides estimates of value of building work and number of dwellings commenced, completed, under construction and in the pipeline

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Reference period
December 2021
Released
13/04/2022
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Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms in the December quarter:

  • Total dwelling unit commencements fell -13.5% to 50,200 dwellings.
  • New private sector house commencements fell -10.3% to 32,085 dwellings.
  • New private sector other residential commencements fell -19.4% to 17,070 dwellings.
  • The value of total building work done fell -1.6% to $30.3b.

Number of dwellings commenced

 

 Dec qtr 21
no.		Sep qtr 21 to Dec qtr 21
% change		Dec qtr 20 to Dec qtr 21
% change

Seasonally adjusted

Total dwelling units commenced50,200-13.5-2.0
New private sector houses32,085-10.3-5.0
New private sector other residential building17,070-19.44.7

 

 

The total number of dwelling units commenced in Australia fell 13.5% to 50,200 dwellings in the December quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. New private sector house commencements fell 10.3% to 32,085 dwellings, following a fall of 15.7% in the September quarter. New private sector other residential commencements fell 19.4% to 17,070 dwellings, following a fall of 11.6% in the September quarter.

Value of work done

Reference year for Chain Volume Measures is 2019-2020

 Dec qtr 21
$m		Sep qtr 21 to Dec qtr 21
% change		Dec qtr 20 to Dec qtr 21
% change

Seasonally adjusted chain volume measures

Total value of work done30,281.4-1.61.5
New residential building15,498.8-2.3-0.8
Alterations and additions to residential building2,703.0-7.75.7
Non-residential building12,079.60.93.7



 

The value of total building work done fell 1.6% to $30.3b in the December quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by new residential building work done, which fell 2.3% to $15.5b and follows a fall of 2.3% in the September quarter. Non-residential building work done rose 0.9% to $12.1b.  Work done on new houses fell 3.7% to $10.0b, while new other residential building rose 0.2% to $5.5b.

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Time series spreadsheets

Data files

File contents

The Building Activity: Australia data cube contains original current price data at finer levels of building type than is available in the time series spreadsheets.

The Building Activity: Australia pivot table contains the following data items
Data itemClassification
State/TerritoryAll States and Territories
Reference quarterQuarterly (September 2001 to current)
Sector of ownershipPrivate, Public, Total
Type of buildingHouses
 Semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses - One storey
 Semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses - Two or more storeys
 Semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses - Total
 Apartments - In a one or two storey block
 Apartments - In a three storey block
 Apartments - In a four to eight storey block
 Apartments - Nine or more storeys
 Apartments - Total including those attached to a house
 Total other residential
 Total residential
 Retail and wholesale trade buildings
 Transport buildings
 Offices
 Commercial buildings n.e.c
 Commercial buildings - Total
 Factories and other secondary production buildings
 Warehouses
 Agricultural and aquacultural buildings
 Other industrial buildings n.e.c.
 Industrial buildings - Total
 Education buildings
 Religious buildings
 Aged care facilities
 Health buildings
 Entertainment and recreation buildings
 Short term accommodation buildings
 Other non-residential n.e.c.
 Other non-residential - Total
 Total non-residential
 Dwellings excluding new residential
 Dwellings excluding houses
 Total
Type of workNew
 Total alterations and additions (incl. refurbishment and conversion)
 Total
Data itemsValue of work done during quarter ($m)
 Value of work yet to be done ($m)
 Value of work in pipeline ($m)
 Value of work not yet commenced ($m)
 Value of work commenced ($m)
 Value of work completed ($m)
 Value of work under construction ($m)
 Dwelling units not yet commenced (no.)
 Dwelling units commenced (no.)
 Dwelling units completed (no.)
 Dwelling units under construction (no.)
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Data cubes

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the reference period when using Data Explorer.

Building Activity by state - value of building work and number of dwellings commenced, completed, under construction and in the pipeline.

About this issue

This publication updates the preliminary estimates released in Construction Work Done, Australia on 23 February 2022. The data in this publication are based on a response rate of approximately 85% of the value of building work done during the quarter. This is lower than the average response rate due to difficulties collecting data as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data are subject to revision when returns from the following quarter are processed. Final data for the December 2021 quarter will be released in the next release of this publication, Building Activity, Australia on 13 July 2022.

Several time series spreadsheets contain 'np' (not available for publication) annotations from the September quarter 2012 onwards. This is due to confidential data being contained in these series.

Inquiries

For inquiries about these and related statistics, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.

Changes this release

Revisions

Compared to the estimate published in Building Activity, Australia September 2021 released on 19 January 2022:

  • the total value of work done in Australia during the September 2021 quarter has been revised upwards by $255.0m or 0.8 % (original, current price). 
  • the total value of work commenced in Australia during the September 2021 quarter has been revised upwards $1242.9m or 3.3% (original, current price). There was an upward revision to total non-residential commencements of $510.4m (3.8%), and an upward revision to total residential commencements of $732.5m (2.9%).
  • the number of dwelling unit commencements in the September 2021 quarter has been revised upwards by 1,458 dwellings or 2.5% (original).

Suspension of trend series

The trend series attempts to measure underlying behaviour in construction activity. This measurement will be significantly affected by changes to regular patterns in activity during this time, as the construction industry faces on-going uncertainty. If the trend estimates in this publication were to be calculated without fully accounting for this irregular event, they would likely provide a misleading view of underlying building activity.

It may be some time before the underlying trend in building activity can be accurately estimated. The trend series have therefore been suspended starting from June 2020. The trend series will be reinstated when more certainty emerges in the underlying trend. 

Reference year update

A new base year, 2019-20, has been introduced in the chain volume estimates resulting in revisions to growth rates in subsequent periods. In addition, the chain volume estimates have been re-referenced to 2019-20, preserving additivity in the quarters after the reference year. Re-referencing affects the levels of, but not the movements in, chain volume estimates. For further information, see the methodology.

Article archive

Building a New Home: Construction Cost Changes, June quarter 2020

Small Area Dwelling Completions, June quarter 2020

Telling storeys - Apartment building heights, December quarter 2019

Characteristics of new residential dwellings - A 15 year summary, December quarter 2019

Abandonment rates for new dwellings, June quarter 2019

Average dwelling commencement times, June quarter 2019

Average dwelling completion times, June quarter 2019

Revisions to building activity statistics, December quarter 2015

Average floor area of new residential dwellings, June quarter 2013

A twenty year history of the cost of building a new house, December quarter 2008

Additional Building and Construction feature articles can be found in Feature Articles by Catalogue Number

 

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8752.0.

Methodology

Building Activity, Australia methodology, December 2021