Building work on new houses leapt by 40% over the year to end March, according to new data released this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The seasonally adjusted figures show that the total number of homes commenced rose 0.2%, to 51,662 in the March quarter 2021. This figure was 13.1% higher than at the same time in 2020.
Work started on new houses rose 5.9% to 35,869 dwellings – a huge leap of 40.2% over the year.
Starts on apartments, on the other hand, fell 11.3% to 14,667 dwellings, to be down by 23.8% compared with the March quarter 2020.
The value of new residential building work done rose 4.8% to $16.2b in the March quarter, in seasonally adjusted terms. Work completed on new houses rose 12.1% to $10.1b, while new other residential building fell 5.2 to $6.1b.%
Western Australia has seen the largest increase in detached house starts, up by 136% compared with the same quarter last year. This was followed by South Australia (up 61.7%), the Northern Territory (59.6%), Tasmania (50.7%), the ACT (50.0%), New South Wales (37.5%), Queensland (28.8%) and Victoria (14.6%).
