Dwelling approvals have taken a drop in the first three moenths of 2013, reversing a strong period of growth throughout 2012, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Building Approvals report.

New South Wales recorded the steepest decline of the states, posting a 3.7 per cent fall in approvals. Victoria wasn’t far behind, with a 3.6 per cent drop in approvals.

Tasmania recorded a 3.5 per cent fall, but Queensland bucked the trend, rallying with a 2.4 per cent upswing. Western Australia recorded a 0.7 per cent growth, and South Australia approval ratings grew by 0.2 per cent.

In trend terms, approvals for private sector houses rose 0.2 per cent in March, having been essentially stable since September last year. Private sector house approvals rose in Western Australia (2.3 per cent) and New South Wales (0.6 per cent). In New South Wales the trend has been rising since March last year (12 months). Private sector house approvals trends fell in Victoria (-0.9 per cent), South Australia (-0.7 per cent) and Queensland (-0.7 per cent). Only Queensland has maintained a fall over the last year (13 months).

The trend value of total building approved rose modestly (0.1 per cent) in March and has now risen for 14 months. The value of residential building fell 2.4 per cent while non-residential building rose 3.6 per cent.
This media release focuses on movements in the trend as seasonally adjusted month to month movements can be highly volatile and are not necessarily indicative of the underlying strength in approvals data.