Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved
The May 2022 trend estimate:
The May 2022 seasonally adjusted estimate:
The trend series for Building Approvals has been reviewed and been reinstated.
Further details on the reinstatement of trend, is available in the Data Note section below.
| May-22 | Monthly change | Yearly change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| no. | % | % | |
| TREND | |||
| Total dwelling units approved | 15,487 | -1.5 | -23.4 |
| Private sector houses | 9,808 | -0.5 | -25.3 |
| Private sector dwellings excluding houses | 5,304 | -2.5 | -21.9 |
| SEASONALLY ADJUSTED | |||
| Total dwelling units approved | 16,390 | 9.9 | -20.9 |
| Private sector houses | 9,687 | -2.7 | -29.5 |
| Private sector dwellings excluding houses | 6,376 | 32.0 | -5.4 |
(a) Trend break added to 'Total dwelling units approved' trend series for February 2021
The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 1.5% in May, this follows a 1.2% fall in April.
The seasonally adjusted estimate for the number of dwellings approved in Australia rose 9.9% in May. This follows a 3.9% fall in April.
(a) Trend break added to 'Private sector houses' trend series for February 2021
The trend estimate for private sector house approvals fell 0.5% in May, this follows a 0.8% fall in April. Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 2.5%, following a 1.4% fall in April.
The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals fell 2.7% in May, to 9,687, following a 0.2% decline in April. Private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 32.0%, following a 8.1% fall in April.
Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals decreased in Northern Territory (-3.7%), Victoria (-2.8%), Tasmania (-2.5%), New South Wales (-2.2%), and the Australian Capital Territory (-2.1%), in trend terms. Dwelling approvals rose in Western Australia (1.9%), Queensland (0.8%), and South Australia (0.4%).
Approvals for private sector houses fell in New South Wales (-2.3%) and Victoria (-0.4%). Queensland (2.0%), Western Australia (0.6%), and South Australia (0.1%) rose, in trend terms.
| Private sector houses | Private sector houses | Total dwelling unit approvals | Total dwelling unit approvals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no. | Monthly % change | no. | Monthly % change | |
| New South Wales | 2,317 | -2.3 | 4,171 | -2.2 |
| Victoria | 3,057 | -0.4 | 5,017 | -2.8 |
| Queensland | 2,106 | 2.0 | 3,055 | 0.8 |
| South Australia | 785 | 0.1 | 1,054 | 0.4 |
| Western Australia | 1,186 | 0.6 | 1,396 | 1.9 |
| Tasmania | na | na | 231 | -2.5 |
| Northern Territory | na | na | 52 | -3.7 |
| Australian Capital Territory | na | na | 507 | -2.1 |
| Australia | 9,808 | -0.5 | 15,487 | -1.5 |
By state, the number of dwelling approvals rose in Western Australia (38.7%), Tasmania (26.8%), Queensland (20.9%) and New South Wales (4.7%), in seasonally adjusted terms. Dwelling approvals decreased in South Australia (-21.3%) and Victoria (-6.6%).
Approvals for private sector houses fell in New South Wales (-11.1%), South Australia (-4.1%), Queensland (-1.3%), and Victoria (-0.9%). Western Australia (4.9%) rose, in seasonally adjusted terms.
| Private sector houses | Private sector houses | Total dwelling unit approvals | Total dwelling unit approvals | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no. | Monthly % change | no. | Monthly % change | |
| New South Wales | 2,148 | -11.1 | 4,236 | 4.7 |
| Victoria | 3,047 | -0.9 | 4,772 | -6.6 |
| Queensland | 2,104 | -1.3 | 3,312 | 20.9 |
| South Australia | 786 | -4.1 | 1,053 | -21.3 |
| Western Australia | 1,231 | 4.9 | 1,793 | 38.7 |
| Tasmania | na | na | 303 | 26.8 |
| Northern Territory | na | na | na | na |
| Australian Capital Territory | na | na | na | na |
| Australia | 9,687 | -2.7 | 16,390 | 9.9 |
| Trend | Trend | Seasonally adjusted | Seasonally adjusted | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $m | Monthly % change | $m | Monthly % change | |
| New residential building | 6,347.8 | 1.2 | 6,615.4 | 5.9 |
| Alterations and additions to residential building | 988.6 | 0.0 | 1,027.1 | 3.8 |
| Total residential building | 7,336.4 | 1.0 | 7,642.5 | 5.6 |
| Non-residential building | 4,987.1 | -1.5 | 5,445.7 | 16.5 |
| Total building | 12,323.5 | 0.0 | 13,088.2 | 9.9 |
(a) Trend break added to 'Total residential' trend series for September 2020 and February 2021.
The trend estimate of the value of total building approved was flat in May. The value of total residential building increased by 1.0%, following a 0.6% rise in April. The rise in total residential building value was driven by a 1.2% rise in value of new residential building approved, while the value of alterations and additions was flat.
The trend estimate of the value of non-residential building fell 1.5%, following a 0.4% decrease in April.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of the value of total building approved rose 9.9% in May. The value of total residential building increased by 5.6%, following a 4.6% rise in April. The rise in total residential building value was comprised of a 5.9% rise in value of new residential building approved and a 3.8% increase in alterations and additions.
The seasonally adjusted estimate of the value of non-residential building rose 16.5%, following a 16.8% decrease in April.
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Help for: Data Explorer Datasets
Building Approvals by Greater Capital Cities Statistical Area (GCCSA) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2001 onwards
Building Approvals by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2016 onwards
Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2020) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2020/21
Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2021) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2021/22
This publication provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved released in Building Approvals, Australia on 4 July 2022.
Small area data cubes and CSV files will be made available in an “Additional Information” release five business days after the main publication. These will be for Statistical Areas Level 2 and Local Government Areas. Release dates are published under the “Forthcoming Issues” section of the publication and in the ABS Release Calendar.
A number of time series spreadsheets contain ‘np’ (not available for publication) annotations. This is due to confidential data being contained in these series.
In early 2020 the ABS advised that the method used to produce seasonally adjusted estimates would be changed from the ‘concurrent adjustment’ method to the ‘forward factors’ method for series with significant and prolonged impacts from COVID-19. Given the ongoing disruption during the COVID-19 period and continuing use of forward factors, extraordinary annual reviews of seasonally adjusted series are progressively being undertaken across the ABS statistics programs.
The extraordinary annual review process assesses each series individually to determine how observations from 2020 and 2021 should be treated and determine the most appropriate approach (concurrent adjustment or forward factors) for estimating seasonal adjustment factors in the immediate future. Revisions arising from the annual review are relatively minor for most series, but series which have used forward factors are likely to have larger revisions because the seasonal factor estimates are annually updated to incorporate information from the previous year's observations.
The outcome of the review for Building Approvals statistics is that concurrent seasonal adjustment will be reinstated for all series, as COVID-19 is no longer having significant and prolonged impacts on the series.
Further information can be found here: https://www.abs.gov.au/articles/methods-changes-during-covid-19-period
In early 2020 the ABS suspended trend series, in addition to adopting forward factors to produce seasonally adjusted series. The trend estimate indicates the medium to long direction of a time series. To estimate the trend, the effect of significant events like disruptions associated with COVID-19 are assigned to either the trend or irregular components of a time series. The rationale for suspending trend series was that it was unknown whether the impacts from COVID-19 would be short or medium to long-term, and therefore there was high probability of needing to significantly revise initial assessments of the impacts of COVID-19 on the trend.
The trend series for Building Approvals has been reviewed and been reinstated.
Over the last two years, the impacts of COVID-19 on Building Approvals series have not caused multiple abrupt changes in the series level in short succession, and so it is appropriate to describe a trend level through the past two years. As a result, Building Approvals will also be publishing a trend over the previous two years for relevant series.
In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2020 to April 2022. Further information about potential sources of revisions can be found in the feature article released with the January 2016 Building Approvals publication - "Revisions to Building Approval Statistics".
Revisions to the total number of dwelling units approved in this issue are:
| Financial year | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dwellings revised by State | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
| New South Wales | 18 | 13 |
| Victoria | - | 66 |
| Queensland | 18 | -171 |
| South Australia | - | -4 |
| Western Australia | - | 45 |
| Tasmania | 4 | 6 |
| Northern Territory | - | - |
| Australian Capital Territory | - | - |
| Total | 40 | -45 |
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.
This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.
11/07/2022 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 4 July 2022, this additional information release contains the small area Excel datacubes and CSV files for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 financial years.