Residential Building Approvals falling fast in regional QLD

Posted on July 8, 2020 by Pete Faulkner - Uncategorized

Last week we saw the data for residential Building Approvals from the ABS for May (see commentary here) which showed QLD approvals fell 14.8% y/y. Today the regional, original data from the ABS allows us to update our own Conus Trend. This shows approvals in Greater Brisbane were down 7.8% y/y in May while in the Rest of QLD the decline was much greater at 18.5% y/y and now sits at an all-time low of just 931 approvals.

The changes across the regions are very varied with Townsville enjoying a 35.6% increase (albeit from a very low base) while in the Gold Coast approvals fell by 41.9% y/y; in Cairns we saw a 12.1% y/y decline.

The complete set of 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 – May 2020