The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recently released its building approval data for November 2011 – a key statistic for the residential property industry as it provides an indication as to how many private sector residences have been approved for construction.
The ABS data for November showed an uplift in dwelling approvals, which the team at Century 21 believes to be welcome news for the Australian property market as we commence 2012.
According to the ABS, the number of residential properties approved nationwide increased by 8.4 per cent in November. According to Century 21 Australia Chairman and Owner, Charles Tarbey, who commented on the data, this increase is pleasing, particularly given the declines seen over the previous months of September and October.
While advising that it could not be ignored that approvals remain 18.9 per cent lower than they were a year previously in November 2010, Charles commented that the data is positive news for the market and investors in the New Year.
Studying the data further, it can be seen that the national increase was largely driven by increases in the states of Victoria (up 39.9 per cent), Queensland (up 6.6 per cent) and New South Wales (2.0 per cent). A decline in approvals was seen in Western Australia, Tasmania and South Australia (in seasonally adjusted terms).
Charles noted that it will be interesting to see the movement of approvals into 2012 as we start to get more of an idea about the market reaction to the Reserve Bank of Australia's cut to interest rates over November and December.
All in all, such upwards movement in building approvals is pleasing to see and hopefully market conditions over the year will support the continuation of this lift – helping to put Australia in a better position to meet the projected demand for housing moving forward.