Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
May 2023
Released
3/07/2023
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Key statistics

The May 2023 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved rose 20.6%.
  • Private sector houses rose 0.9%, while private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 59.4%.
  • The value of non-residential buildings rose 6.6%, while value of new residential building rose 17.1%.
  • The value of total building rose 11.1%.

Dwellings approved

May key figures
 May 23 (no.)Monthly change (%)Yearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved15,03220.6-9.8
 Private sector houses8,1350.9-15.3
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses6,72259.4-0.1
Trend
 Total dwelling units approved13,3460.8-15.8
 Private sector houses8,069-0.6-17.3
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses5,1253.7-10.5
  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 20.6% in May, following a 6.8% decrease in April.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved rose 0.8% in May, which follows a 0.1% fall in April.

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

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals rose 0.9% in May, to 8,135 dwellings, following a 3.0% fall in April. Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved rose 59.4% in May, following a 13.2% fall in April.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals fell 0.6% in May, after a 1.0% decrease in April. Private sector dwellings excluding houses rose 3.7%, following a 2.1% rise in April.

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, total dwelling approvals rose in New South Wales (52.9%), Tasmania (41.1%), Victoria (15.0%), and Queensland (0.9%).  Western Australia (-11.1%), and South Australia (-4.8%) fell in seasonally adjusted terms. 

Approvals for private sector houses fell in South Australia (-7.2%), Western Australia (-4.5%), New South Wales, and Queensland (-1.8%). Victoria (7.3%) increased in May.

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 Wales1,814-3.46,50552.9
Victoria2,6797.33,76415.0
Queensland1,565-1.82,3110.9
South Australia778-7.21,019-4.8
Western Australia917-4.5994-11.1
Tasmanianana29241.1
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia8,1350.915,03220.6

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwelling approvals rose in New South Wales (11.2%), Northern Territory (2.3%), South Australia (1.5%), and Tasmania (0.8%). Australian Capital Territory (-32.7%), Queensland (-7.6%), Victoria (-3.9%), and Western Australia (-0.1%) fell in trend terms.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in in New South Wales (-1.3%), Queensland (-1.2%), and Victoria (-0.7%). South Australia (1.2%) and Western Australia (0.2%) both recorded an increase.

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 Wales1,817-1.34,96111.2
Victoria2,613-0.73,443-3.9
Queensland1,601-1.22,438-7.6
South Australia7881.21,0101.5
Western Australia9190.21,075-0.1
Tasmanianana2450.8
Northern Territorynana442.3
Australian Capital Territorynana136-32.7
Australia8,069-0.613,3460.8

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building6,69017.16,1270.3
Alterations and additions to residential building1,0444.31,0160.8
Total residential building7,73515.27,1430.4
Non-residential building6,7036.66,3254.6
Total building14,43711.113,4682.3
  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 rose 11.1% in May, following a 1.7% rise in April. The value of total residential building approvals rose 15.2%, comprised of a 17.1% increase in new residential building, and a 4.3% rise in alterations and additions. 

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building increased 6.6%, following a 10.0% rise in April.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved rose 2.3% in May, following a 2.3% increase in April. The value of total residential building rose 0.4%, comprised of a 0.3% rise in the value of new residential building and a 0.8% rise in the value of alterations and additions.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building rose 4.6% in May, following a 5.0% increase in April.

Interactive map

Building approvals data can be viewed on an interactive map.

Note that the interactive map will be offline soon after the small area publication release and will be refreshed with the current month's data within 5 business days.

How to use

  • Navigating topics: maps can be selected via the drop-down menu (mobile devices) or the tabs (larger screens).
  • Search: the search icon opens the search function. It is set to look for locations such as addresses, suburbs and postcodes contained within an SA2 or LGA.
  • Data: on each map, an SA2 or LGA region can be selected to view the underlying data. Data for all SA2s and LGAs can be found in the Download section of this publication.
  • If the maps do not load successfully, please try refreshing this page.

Geographic areas

The boundaries used in this map are:

Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and Local Government Area (LGA) boundaries according to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Edition 3

 

Data downloads

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Dwellings approved

Data files
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Value of building approved

Data files
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Non-residential building approved

Data files
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Chain volume measures

Data files
Download all (98.23 KB)

Demolitions

Data files

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

    Download xlsx [52.09 KB]

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

    Download xlsx [56.81 KB]

Small area datacubes

Data items

Building Approvals: Data items available by Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS)

Data files
Download xlsx [64.43 KB]
Download all (259.31 KB)

NSW

Data files
Download all (221.14 KB)

Vic.

Data files
Download all (227.03 KB)

Qld

Data files
Download all (144.89 KB)

SA

Data files
Download all (171.4 KB)

WA

Data files
Download all (121.58 KB)

Tas.

Data files
Download all (120 KB)

NT

Data files
Download all (116.33 KB)

ACT

Data files

Validation table

Building Approvals: Data cube validation table

Data files
Download xlsx [49.7 KB]

Small area approvals (.csv)

Statistical Area Level 2

Data files

Local Government Area

Data files

Demolition approvals (.csv)

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 time period when using Data Explorer.

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 2021) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2021/22

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2022) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2022/23

GeoPackages

Data files

Dwellings revised by state

In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2021 to April 2023. The revision table below for this month has higher than usual revisions in New South Wales, mostly driven by approvals for other residential jobs from earlier periods. 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 Wales241486
Victoria-25149
Queensland1449
South Australia-36
Western Australia-4718
Tasmania--
Northern Territory--
Australian Capital Territory--
Total-371708

Post release changes

10/07/2023 - As advertised in the ABS future releases calendar, this additional information release contains all Building Approvals small area data components. This is comprised of the small area excel data cubes, csv files, additional Data Explorer links, and GeoPackages for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years. In addition, a small area interactive story map has been added to illustrate building approvals data by SA2 and LGA, for the current financial year.

04/07/2023 - A post release correction was applied to the number of dwelling revisions for Victoria and Western Australia. Financial year cells now correctly sum to results in the Total row.

Data Notes

Review of seasonal adjustment

A detailed review of seasonal factors and the seasonal adjustment process has been conducted this month, in accordance with our seasonal adjustment policy (see Methodology for more details). The outcome of the review has resulted in a small number of changes for a handful of series. Further information on seasonal adjustment estimates can be found in the ABS Information paper Time Series Analysis Frequently Asked Questions, 2003.

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, May 2023

Media releases