The legacy of the HomeBuilder initiative lives on, with a record number of houses commencing construction in the recent June quarter.
Commenting on new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, PropTrack’s Cameron Kusher said the number of new houses starting construction had hit a historic high of 41,276 nationally.
Unit commencements also increased to 22,974, which is the highest they have been since September 2018, but that figure was still 29.2 per cent below the peak.
“New home constructions remain one of the major strengths of the economy stimulus measures, low borrowing costs and a lack of stock available for sale in the existing homes market,” Mr Kusher said.
“It’s clear that HomeBuilder and the surge in demand for new homes since the middle of last year has created a significant pipeline of housing construction with a record number of new homes kicking off construction in the June 2021 quarter.”
While there is currently a large volume of stock under construction, Mr Kusher said a larger than average share of it was new houses.
“They tend to be built much quicker than unit projects. So, while the sector is very strong right now, as that stimulus eventually wears off there may be some slowing in demand for new houses in particular,” he said.
“This potential slowdown may be offset by the re-emergence of non-citizen buyers as international borders re-open and this is a trend that we will be watching closely.”
With the upswing in commencements for houses, Mr Kusher said he expected an elevated number of completions over the coming months.
New house completions increased by 5.8 per cent in the June 2021 quarter to be 4.1 per cent higher year-on-year, while new unit completions were 3.4 per cent lower and 1.9 per cent lower year-on-year.
The number of new homes currently under construction is also at a historic high, having surpassed the March 2021 by 16.8 per cent.
Key data
- Previous stimulus measures and high demand for new homes has resulted in a significant volume of stock being under construction currently across the country.
- The number of new houses under construction was at an historic high at the end of the quarter in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.
- The number of dwellings under construction at the end of the June 2021 quarter reached 211,686 which was the highest number since the March 2019 quarter.
- The number of new houses under construction rose 16.8 per cent over the quarter to reach a new historic high, which was previously achieved over the March 21 quarter.
- The number of new dwellings under construction rose 2.8 per cent over the quarter but was 4.6 per cent lower than the same quarter last year.
