Disappointing housing activity for the June quarter. Seasonally adjusted residential building work fell 4.1 per cent. That’s according to preliminary results by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The trend estimate for residential building work fell 1 per cent and has fallen for three quarters. Major renovations activity increased 3.4 per cent in the June quarter, with work on renovations worth more than $7 billion, the highest in almost three years. New residential building work increased by 7.9 per cent in South Australia for the quarter. In the Northern Territory, the June quarter was down by 38 per cent when compared to the June quarter last year. For the quarter, new residential building work fell by 13 per cent in New South Wales, 9.7 per cent in Western Australia, 7 per cent in the ACT, 6.6 per cent in Queensland, 0.3 per cent in Victoria and 0.2 per cent in Tasmania.
Australians continue to build the world’s largest homes, but there are signs our love affair with the McMansion is coming to an end. According to ABS data commissioned by Commsec, the average new dwelling for the nine months to March this year came in at 214 square metres. Those figures show Australian houses are 10 per cent larger than in the United States and 9 per cent larger than in New Zealand. New apartments constructed had the smallest average size for a decade. CommSec chief economist Craig James said more people were choosing to live in smaller, more central dwellings, rather than facing a long commute from a quarter acre block in the suburbs. In the Northern Territory and Western Australia dwelling sizes had increased in recent years in line with the mining boom.
Housing affordability has improved in the June quarter. The HIA-Commonwealth Bank Housing Affordability Index improved by 0.8 per cent. Earnings growth and a small decrease in mortgage lending rates worked to improve affordability. The global economic uncertainty responsible for the improvement.
And home owners are staying put. RP Data reporting that ten years ago the hold period on property was 6.8 years and now in 2011 is 8.6 years. Monash in Melbourne held the nation’s longest average hold period during the last year at 12.6 years. The mining region of Port Hedland in Western Australia had the country’s shortest average hold period of 4.7 years.
