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

Reference period
March 2023
Released
12/07/2023

Key statistics

In seasonally adjusted terms:

 

  • Total dwelling commencements rose 14.0% to 46,546 dwellings.
  • New private sector house commencements fell 5.5% to 26,026 dwellings.
  • New private sector other residential commencements rose 57.2% to 19,344 dwellings.
  • The value of total building work done fell 0.4% to $30.7b.

Number of dwellings commenced

Number of dwellings commenced, seasonally adjusted
 Mar qtr 23
no.
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New private sector houses26,026-5.5-15.8
New private sector other residential building19,34457.211.8
Total dwelling units commenced46,54614.0-6.6

 

 

Number of dwellings commenced, trend
 Mar qtr 23
no.
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New private sector houses26,144-5.0-17.0
New private sector other residential building16,4799.8-6.3
Total dwelling units commenced43,7010.4-13.4

 

The total number of dwelling units commenced in Australia rose 14.0% to 46,546 dwellings in the March quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. Private sector other residential buildings drove the increase, rising 57.2% to 19,344 dwellings and are 11.8% higher for the year. Private sector house commencements fell 5.5% to 26,026 dwellings, following a fall of 4.6% in the December quarter and are down 15.8% for the year.

Dwellings under construction increased 1.3% to 240,813 dwellings in the March quarter. New houses accounted for 103,778 of the dwellings under construction.

Value of work done

Value of work done, seasonally adjusted chain volume measures (a)
 Mar qtr 23
$m
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New residential building15,425.6-2.0-4.7
Alterations and additions to residential building2,678.52.1-6.2
Non-residential building12,613.81.22.8
Total value of work done30,718.0-0.4-1.9
Value of work done, trend chain volume measures (a)
 Mar qtr 23
$m
Dec qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
Mar qtr 22 to Mar qtr 23
% change
New residential building15,625.80.5-0.9
Alterations and additions to residential building2,640.2-0.6-7.1
Non-residential building12,611.60.22.8
Total value of work done30,880.00.30.0

(a) Reference year for Chain Volume Measures is 2020-2021

The value of total building work done fell 0.4% to $30.7b in March quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. The fall was driven by new residential building work done, which fell 2.0% to $15.4b and follows an increase of 1.0% in the December quarter. Work done on non-residential building rose 1.2% to $12.6b and is 2.8% higher for the year. Work done on alterations and additions to residential buildings rose 2.1% to $2.7b.

Data downloads

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.)
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. 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 March 2023 quarter will be released in the next release of this publication, Building Activity, Australia on 18 October 2023.

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.

Enquiries

For enquiries 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 December 2022 released on 12 April 2023:

  • the total value of work done in Australia during the December 2022 quarter has been revised upwards by $175.2m or 0.5% (original, current price). 
  • the total value of work commenced in Australia during the December 2022 quarter has been revised upwards $809.1m or 2.3% (original, current price). This was driven by an upwards revision to total non-residential commencements of $879.1m or 6.3%. Total residential commencements were revised downwards by $70m (-0.3%).
  • the number of dwelling unit commencements in the December 2022 quarter has been revised downwards by 443 dwellings or -1.0% (original).

For the March Building Activity release each year, the ABS publishes revisions that have been made to Building Activity data prior to the December quarter. In this release, revisions have been provided back to March quarter 2017. Refer to the methodology for more information about revisions.

Article archive

The following data cubes provide additional insights into Building Activity and are updated annually. Refer to the Data Downloads section of the relevant Building Activity release.

June quarter:

  • Building Activity Average Dwelling Commencement Times
  • Building Activity Average Dwelling Completion times
  • Building Activity Abandonment Rates for New Dwellings

December quarter:

  • Building Activity Average Cost
  • Building Activity Average Floor Area

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8752.0.

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