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Despite some improvement in the residential building approvals in QLD (see here), today’s release by the ABS of the regional approvals for Dec shows a slight dip in the Far North council areas. The headline figures show a total of 50 approvals for Cairns (incl Douglas) and 3 for the Cassowary Coast (this figure is somewhat lower than that suggested by CCRC comments earlier this month; the discrepancy may be due to Council commenting on total, rather than residential, approvals. See our commentary at the time here). Headline approvals in Townsville have bounced nicely to 122 (from 102 in Nov).
As always, we need to consider this data in the light of the Conus Trend series. Here we see the Trend for Cairns (incl Douglas) fall to 54 from a downwardly revised 55 in Nov. Cassowary Coast stays unchanged (when rounded) at 5 after Nov was revised down from 6. In Townsville the Conus Trend falls to 134 (although Nov was revised sharply higher to 137 from 128).
The chart below makes clear the slide that we are seeing in the Far North. However, Cairns remains (in Trend terms) up 6.9% from the same time a year ago and Townsville is up 4.7%.
Unfortunately the Cassowary Coast monthly Trend figure is now down 19.6% from a year ago, although the Trend total for the year is up 9.6% from 73 to 80, which is perhaps the more relevant figure given the small numbers in individual months. We will want to see the monthly Trend data returning to stronger levels in coming months if the touted building recovery in the CCRC is to continue.
p.s. Those readers in the Cassowary Coast might also like to know that Pete has decided to run for Mayor at the CCRC election in March 2016. You can get more information at his new website.
We are proud to have CBC Staff Selection as supporters of the Conus/CBC Staff Selection Trend Employment and Jobseeker data series
February 10th, 2015 at 2:51 am
Interesting to note there signs of some activity beginning to return to the unit sector in Cairns LGA.
February 10th, 2015 at 3:44 am
Yes indeed Mark. I haven’t gone into detail with the Cairns data as I always assume that you will dig into the SA2 data!