The pace at which new work is coming in for Australia’s home building sector is continuing to increase, new data shows.

But the number of housing starts remains well below that which is required in order to meet national housing targets.

The Australia Bureau of Statistics has released the latest quarterly edition of its Building Activity report, which covers up until the end of the September quarter.

According to the data, the seasonally adjusted number of dwellings that were commenced throughout Australia increased by 4.6 percent during the September quarter to reach 43,247.

At this level, commencement numbers are clearly back on the rise and are 13.9 percent above the 10-year low that was struck in the September quarter of 2023 (see chart).

However, quarterly commencements remain well below the 60,000 which are needed to achieve the national housing target of delivering 1.2 million new homes over the five years to June 2029.

With the September quarter having been the first to fall under that five-year target period, the data implies a slow start toward meeting that target.

Leading the way is detached house construction, where seasonally adjusted commencement numbers increased by 5.2 percent over the quarter and have risen by 20.5 percent over the past year.

By contrast, mutli-unit starts have risen by only 3.8 percent for the quarter and by 3.8 percent over the year.

Building industry lobby groups warned that more needs to be done in order to achieve housing objectives.

“The September quarter result is less than three quarters of the required build rate,” Housing Industry Association Senior Economist Tom Devitt said.

“This is simply too slow out of the blocks.”

Oscar Stanley, National Vice President, Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA), welcomed the increase but added that more policy action is needed to meet housing targets.

“Now more than ever, Australia’s political leadership needs to accelerate housing delivery with initiatives that not only build on affordable and social housing commitments, but also boost median priced housing for all Australians,” Stanley said.

“While we are currently facing an ever-increasing housing supply gap across Australia, we require all levels of Government to prioritise implementing bold initiatives such as these to enable industry and build the homes Australians deserve.”

 

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