Building approvals announced today by the ABS show once again that action needs to be taken to enable more homes to be built for the people of Australia. Despite a monthly uptick in multi-unit approvals in May, aggregate multi-unit approvals are 32% lower than the same time 12 months ago.
“We cannot afford to live month to month on figures and need to look at the trend over the year to truly understand the circumstances we are in. Today’s statistics reveal that we are heading in the wrong direction if we want to have any hope of achieving housing affordability in the next decade,” said Col Dutton, UDIA National President.
On base numbers we need at least 240,000 houses each year which means approvals have to be 15% higher than that number to account for commercial attrition.
We are falling further behind and there is plenty of work to be done by Federal Government to incentivise and support state and territory action that boosts housing supply over a sustained period. This includes removing upfront barriers to housing in
planning and enabling infrastructure – water power, sewer roads.
“We need the entire market to be able to access streamlined planning that, at the very minimum cuts approval times and processes in half, implements efficient environmental approvals, rapid conversion of zoned land to development ready land and introduces incentives that support those delivering housing to viably increase affordable housing,” said Col Dutton.
Key Stats:
ABS dwelling approval figures released today provide May 2024 statistics on the volumes
of dwelling approvals by type across the nation.
- Total approvals grew 4.5% in May driven by a 16% increase in multi-unit approvals
and a modest 2% increase in separate house approvals (seasonally adjusted). - Despite a monthly uptick in multi-unit approvals in May, aggregate multi-unit
approvals are 32% lower than the same time 12 months ago. - The on-going weakness of the multi-unit market is underscored by a 15% decline
- in approvals on a rolling-12 month basis, with current monthly approval volumes
- 33% lower than the decade average.
- Modelled forecasts of June quarter approvals (to provide the complete approvals
volumes for FY 24) indicates Australia is on track to record the lowest levels of
dwelling approvals in FY 24 in twelve years. - The Federal Government’s target of 1.2 million new homes over the next five years
will require an average of 262,000 approvals a year – a volume never achieved in
Australia and an alarming 38% higher than the approvals set to be achieved in FY
24.
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Media Enquiries: Deanna Lane | Director, National Media & Communications | 0416 295 898 | media@udia.com.au