Building Approvals, Australia

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Provides the number of dwelling units and value of buildings approved

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Reference period
January 2023
Released
2/03/2023
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Key statistics

The January 2023 seasonally adjusted estimate: 

  • Total dwellings approved fell 27.6%.
  • Private sector houses approved fell 13.8%, while private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 40.8%.
  • The value of total building fell 18.6%.
  • The value of non-residential building fell 25.6%.

Dwellings approved

January key figures
 Jan 23 (no.)Monthly change (%)Yearly change (%)
Seasonally adjusted
 Total dwelling units approved12,065-27.6-8.4
 Private sector houses7,560-13.8-12.0
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses4,340-40.8-0.3
Trend
 Total dwelling units approved14,177-3.0-13.4
 Private sector houses8,192-4.1-17.6
 Private sector dwellings excluding houses5,647-2.1-5.7
  1. Trend break added to 'Total dwelling units approved' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the number of dwellings approved in Australia fell 27.6% in January, which follows a 15.3% rise in December.

The trend estimate for total dwellings approved fell 3.0% in January, which follows a 3.3% decrease in December.

  1. Trend break added to 'Private sector houses' trend series for February 2021

The seasonally adjusted estimate for private sector house approvals fell 13.8% in January, to 7,560, following a 2.1% decrease in December. Private sector dwellings excluding houses approved fell 40.8% in January, following an 41.9% rise in December.

The trend estimate for private sector house approvals fell 4.1% in January, which follows a 4.1% decrease in December. Private sector dwellings excluding houses fell 2.1%, following a 2.5% fall in December.

Seasonally adjusted summary, by state

By state, total dwelling approvals decreased in New South Wales (-49.0%), Victoria (-38.6%), Tasmania (-31.7%), Western Australia (-7.9%), and South Australia (-6.5%). Only Queensland recorded an increase (25.6%), driven by a number of apartment developments approved in January.

Approvals for private sector houses fell in all states:  Western Australia (-18.7%), New South Wales (-17.3%), Queensland (-16.6%), Victoria (-9.9%) and South Australia (-2.8%), in seasonally adjusted terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, seasonally adjusted
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales1,749-17.32,599-49.0
Victoria2,570-9.93,586-38.6
Queensland1,406-16.63,52525.6
South Australia731-2.8845-6.5
Western Australia867-18.71,050-7.9
Tasmanianana151-31.7
Northern Territorynananana
Australian Capital Territorynananana
Australia7,560-13.812,065-27.6

Trend summary, by state

Across Australia, the number of dwellings approved decreased in Northern Territory (-17.5%), New South Wales (-7.7%), Tasmania (-5.9%), South Australia (-5.1%), Victoria (-3.2%), and Western Australia (-1.9%). Rises were recorded in Australian Capital Territory (4.4%), and Queensland (2.6%).

Approvals for private sector houses fell in all states: Queensland (-5.4%), New South Wales (-3.8%), South Australia (-3.7%), Victoria (-3.5%), and Western Australia (-2.9%), in trend terms.

Dwellings approved, states and territories, trend
 Private sector housesPrivate sector housesTotal dwelling units approvedTotal dwelling units approved
(no.)Monthly change (%)(no.)Monthly change (%)
New South Wales1,969-3.83,541-7.7
Victoria2,703-3.54,780-3.2
Queensland1,536-5.43,1542.6
South Australia746-3.7914-5.1
Western Australia940-2.91,074-1.9
Tasmanianana209-5.9
Northern Territorynana33-17.5
Australian Capital Territorynana4554.4
Australia8,192-4.114,177-3.0

Value of building approved

Value of building approved, by building type
 Seasonally adjustedSeasonally adjustedTrendTrend
($m)Monthly change (%)($m)Monthly change (%)
New residential building5,588-15.16,085-2.5
Alterations and additions to residential building970-4.0994-1.1
Total residential building6,558-13.67,078-2.3
Non-residential building4,048-25.65,016-0.9
Total building10,606-18.612,094-1.7
  1. Trend break added to 'Total residential' trend series for September 2020 and February 2021.

Value of building approved, seasonally adjusted

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of total building approved fell 18.6% in January, following a 1.0% rise in December. The value of total residential building fell 13.6%, comprising of a 15.1% decrease in new residential building, and a 4.0% fall in alterations and additions.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 25.6%, following a 1.6% decrease in December.

Value of building approved, trend

The trend estimate for the value of total building approved fell 1.7% January, following a 1.7% fall in December. The value of total residential building decreased 2.3%, comprised by a 2.5% decrease in the value of new residential building approved and a 1.1% fall in the value of alterations and additions.

The trend estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 0.9% in January, following a 0.8% decrease in December.

Interactive map

Building approvals data can be viewed on an interactive map.

Note that the interactive map will be offline soon after this publication release and will be refreshed with the current month's data within 24 hours.

How to use

Geographic areas

Data downloads

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Dwellings approved

Data files
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Value of building approved

Data files
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Non-residential building approved

Data files
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Chain volume measures

Data files
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Demolitions

Data files

  • Table 87. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, original, states and territories

    Download xlsx [51.93 KB]

  • Table 88. Number of dwellings approved for demolition, by Greater Capital City Statistical Area - original

    Download xlsx [56.59 KB]

Small area datacubes

Data items

Building Approvals: Data items available by Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS)

Data files
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NSW

Data files
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Vic.

Data files
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Qld

Data files
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SA

Data files
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WA

Data files
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Tas.

Data files
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NT

Data files
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ACT

Data files

Validation table

Building Approvals: Data cube validation table

Data files
Download xlsx [46.59 KB]

Small area approvals (.csv)

Statistical Area Level 2

Data files

Local Government Area

Data files

Demolition approvals (.csv)

Data files

Data Explorer datasets

Caution: Data in the Data Explorer is currently released after the 11:30am release on the ABS website. Please check the time period when using Data Explorer.

Help for: Data Explorer Datasets

Building Approvals by Greater Capital Cities Statistical Area (GCCSA) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2001 onwards

Building Approvals by Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and above - Number and value of approvals, monthly, July 2016 onwards

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2021) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2021/22

Building Approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2022) - Number and value of approvals, monthly, 2022/23

GeoPackages

Data files

Dwellings revised by state

In this release, revisions are provided for the time period from July 2019 to December 2022. Further information about potential sources of revisions can be found in the feature article released with the with the February 2016 Building Approvals publication - "Revisions to Building Approval Statistics".

Revisions to the total number of dwelling units approved in this issue are:

Dwellings revised
  2019-212021-222022-23
New South Wales-631839
Victoria3141417
Queensland-116827
South Australia-10-19-6
Western Australia1-58
Tasmania--127
Northern Territory--3
Australian Capital Territory-2--
Total22918965

Post release changes

09/03/2023 - As advertised in the main release of this publication on 02 March 2023, this additional information release contains the small area Excel datacubes and CSV files for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 financial years, along with CSV files for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 financial years. 

Article archive

Previous feature articles

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 8731.0.

Methodology

Building Approvals, Australia methodology, January 2023

Media releases