The first month of the National Housing Accord saw new home building approvals hit a 14-month high, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Master Builders Australia welcomed the news, praising the strong uplift in higher density home approvals, while warning more work is needed to reach the 1.2 million target.
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“This was driven by a leap in approvals for higher density homes by 33.7 per cent,” chief economist Shane Garrett said.
“While the monthly figure can often be volatile, detached home building approvals also inched up by a conservative 0.3 per cent during July. The volume of higher density home building approvals hasn’t been this high since November 2023,” Garrett said.
“Today’s figures show that we have started the Accord on the front foot. However, it will still be a huge challenge for us to deliver the Accord’s target,” Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn said.
“Over the past five years, just 940,000 new homes were approved across Australia.”
“More ominous is the fact that 166,140 new home building approvals were received over the year to July. If we remain at this pace, we’re looking at creating about 831,000 new homes over the next five years,” Wawn said.
“Workforce shortages, woeful industry productivity, a lack of critical infrastructure, high taxes and charges, slow approval process, and costly union Enterprise Bargaining Agreements all inhibit the building and construction industry’s capacity to get on with the job.”