While the first full quarter of this year shows mixed movement in building approvals, the data released today by the ABS to March 2025 shows the real story.
At just under a 9% decline in already low approvals means we can expect to see even less housing delivered in the next 12 months.
With a total of 15,220 approvals, representing a decline of 8.8% seasonally adjusted, the result will be a high number of houses will not proceed.
“Today’s data highlights the importance of housing targets for us to be able to properly track what is happening in the market and will be a valuable tool in the coming years to drive a turnaround in both commencements and completions in order to ramp up housing supply,” said Col Dutton, UDIA National President.
The attrition rate for delivering housing from the original approvals is about 10% due to issues including planning delays causing project overruns and increasing costs stalling projects. This means actual housing delivered will be materially less than the approvals.
“We need to remove all impediments slowing down housing delivery, with a key factor being enabling infrastructure, the water, power, sewer and roads that must be in place to give certainty to supply for development of housing,” said Col Dutton.
The chart below shows how Australia is tracking against the housing accord.
“These numbers show how much work is required by the newly re-elected Albanese Government to get back in alignment with Housing Accord targets,” said Col Dutton.
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Deanna Lane | Director, National Media & Communications | 0416 295 898 | media@udia.com.au