Building Approvals falling faster in the North

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Pete Faulkner - Building Approvals, Cairns, Townsville, Uncategorized

Last week we saw the February residential Building Approvals data show a 21.7% y/y decline across Australia and a 35.3% y/y fall in Queensland. Today’s release of the regional Building Approvals data allows us to dig a little deeper into those numbers.

Using the Conus Trend series (based on the original ABS data) we see that the Greater Brisbane area saw declines of 38.6% y/y with approvals now at a five-and-a-half year low. The pace of decline in the Rest of Queensland is somewhat slower (30.5% y/y) but Trend approvals now sit at their lowest level since March 2011.

When we consider our own region we see the Conus Trend in the Cairns region has fallen to 67 (down 49.2% y/y) while the sharp declines in Townsville continue with the Trend at a new low of just 27 (down 9.4% y/y).

Considering the data at the Local Government Area level we see Cairns Regional Council (incl Douglas Shire) Trend at 46 (down 46.9% y/y); Cassowary Coast Regional Council at 4 (down 48.3% y/y); Tablelands Regional Council (incl Mareeba Shire) at 14 (down 48.6% y/y) and Townsville City Council at 23 (down 54.5% y/y).

The full data-set of the Conus Regional Building Approvals Trend data is available for download below. Please feel free to use this data but kindly acknowledge Conus when you do so.

Conus Regional Building Approvals Trend QLD – Feb 2019