Houses lift new building work

New home building lifted during in the September quarter 2024, according to data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The figures show that the total number of homes commenced in Australia rose 4.6 per cent to 43,247 dwellings in the September quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms.

New houses drove the increase, rising 5.2 per cent to 27,651 dwellings following a rise of 3.7 per cent in the June quarter. Work started on apartments and multi-units also improved, by 3.8 per cent to 14,677 homes following a fall of 5.0 per cent in the June quarter.

There were 220,265 homes under construction in the September quarter, of which 87,672 were new houses.

In seasonally adjusted terms, 44,884 homes were completed in the September quarter. New houses accounted for 28,677 of those, up 0.2 per cent from June. Work finished on multi-unit homes, on the other hand, fell 5.5 per cent from June to 14,860 dwellings.

The value of new residential building rose 2.2 per cent to $20.1b in the September quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms, following an increase of 1.2 per cent in the June quarter. Work done on alterations and additions to residential buildings fell 1.2 per cent to $3.2b.