Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
December 2022
Released
2/02/2023
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Key statistics

The December 2022 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved rose 18.5%.
  • Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 56.6%, while private sector houses fell 2.3%.
  • The value of non-residential building fell 1.7%.

  • The value of total building rose 3.0%

Dwellings approved

December key figures
 Dec 22 (no.)Monthly change (%)Yearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved16,55618.5-3.8
 Private sector houses8,903-2.3-11.7
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses7,09156.62.9
Trend
 Total dwelling units approved15,448-0.4-6.6
 Private sector houses9,051-2.0-10.1
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses6,0251.3-1.1
  1. Trend break added to 'Total dwelling units approved' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the number of dwellings approved in Australia rose 18.5% in December, which follows a 8.8% fall in November.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 0.4% in December, which follows a 0.8% decrease in November.

  1. Trend break added to 'Private sector houses' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals fell 2.3% in December, to 8,903, following a 2.5% decrease in November. Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 56.6% in December, following an 21.8% fall in November.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals fell 2.0% in December, which follows a 2.0% decrease in November. Private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 1.3%, following a 0.5% rise in November.

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, the number of dwellings rose in New South Wales (48.4 per cent), Victoria (20.7 per cent), Queensland (8.3 per cent), and Western Australia (6.4 per cent). Tasmania (-49.7 per cent) and South Australia (-24.6 per cent) recorded decreases.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in South Australia (-7.4%) and New South Wales (-4.2%), while Western Australia (8.2%), Victoria (0.3%), and Queensland rose (0.2%), in seasonally adjusted terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, seasonally adjusted
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,152-4.24,99848.4
Victoria2,8860.35,87420.7
Queensland1,7420.22,7778.3
South Australia756-7.4909-24.6
Western Australia1,0698.21,1416.4
Tasmanianana191-49.7
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia8,903-2.316,55618.5

na not available

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals decreased in Northern Territory (-9.8%), Western Australia (-3.3%), Tasmania (-3.3%), Queensland (-2.7%), New South Wales (-2.2%), and South Australia (-1.9%).  Rises were recorded in Australian Capital Territory (13.3%) and Victoria (2.1%), in trend terms.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in South Australia (-2.7%), Victoria (-2.3%), Queensland (-2.2%), New South Wales (-1.4%), and Western Australia (-1.4%), in trend terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, trend
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales2,204-1.44,358-2.2
Victoria2,927-2.35,5172.1
Queensland1,745-2.22,648-2.7
South Australia798-2.71,014-1.9
Western Australia1,020-1.41,111-3.3
Tasmanianana237-3.3
Northern Territorynana46-9.8
Australian Capital Territorynana49513.3
Australia9,051-2.015,448-0.4

na not available

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building6,6107.26,437-0.7
Alterations and additions to residential building1,0202.71,025-0.1
Total residential building7,6306.67,462-0.6
Non-residential building5,329-1.75,4032.2
Total building12,9583.012,8650.6
  1. Trend break added to 'Total residential' trend series for September 2020 and February 2021.

Value of building approved, seasonally adjusted

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of total building approved rose 3.0% in December, following a 0.6% fall in November. The value of total residential building rose 6.6%, comprising of a 7.2% increase in new residential building, and a 2.7% rise in alterations and additions.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 1.7%, following a 2.2% increase in November.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved rose 0.6% December, following a 0.6% rise in November. The value of total residential building decreased 0.6%, comprised by a 0.7% decrease in the value of new residential building approved and a 0.1% fall in the value of alterations and additions.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building rose 2.2% in December, following a 2.8% increase in November.

Data downloads

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Dwellings approved

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Value of building approved

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Non-residential building approved

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Chain volume measures

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Demolitions

Data files

  • Table 87. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, original, states and territories

    Download xlsx [51.94 KB]

  • Table 88. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, by Greater Capital City Statistical Area - original

    Download xlsx [56.58 KB]

Data Explorer datasets

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

Building Approvals by Greater Capital Cities Statistical Area (GCCSA) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2001 onwards

Dwellings revised by state

In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2021 to November 2022. Further information about potential sources of revisions can be found in the feature article released with the with the February 2016 Building Approvals publication - "Revisions to Building Approval Statistics".

Revisions to the total number of dwelling units approved in this issue are:

Dwellings revised
  2021-222022-23
New South Wales-63714
Victoria-36
Queensland1754
South Australia-34
Western Australia-12
Tasmania-4
Northern Territory--
Australian Capital Territory-222
Total-623346

Article archive

Previous feature articles

New houses being built on smaller blocks, April 2022

Small Area Dwelling Stock Removals, September 2021

National, state & territory level dwelling demolition approvals, June 2021

Residential Construction and the Finance Process, September 2020

Small area demolition approvals, August 2020

Australians building houses on smaller blocks, July 2020

Characteristics of apartment approvals, September 2019

Growth in approvals, December 2018

Change in composition of dwelling approvals, July 2016

Implementation of the Australian Statistical Geography Standard in ABS Building Approvals collection, April 2011

Average floor area of new residential dwellings, February 2010

Average quarterly completion times for new houses, July 2008

Changes in the mix of dwelling types, April 2008

Average floor area of new residential dwellings, February 2008

Are we building on smaller blocks?, July 2004

Focus on the South Australian Construction Industry, June 2004

Focus on the Tasmanian Construction Industry, June 2004

Focus on the Queensland Construction Industry, May 2004

Focus on the Victorian Construction Industry, April 2004

Engineering Construction, March 2004

Focus on the New South Wales Construction Industry, February 2004

Average floor area of new dwellings, December 2003

Work done on housing jobs each quarter, March 2003

Inner city development, December 2002

Functional classification of buildings, August 2002

Building activity in Sydney and Melbourne, July 2002

Changes in the mix of dwelling types, May 2002

Construction Industry information, April 2002

Average value of new houses, March 2002

Largest and fastest growing areas in Australia, November 2001

Functional classification of buildings, August 2001

Average floor area of new dwellings, July 2001

Identifying growth areas, May 2001

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

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.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.

Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, December 2022

Media releases