Trend building approvals hit record low in Cairns in June

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Pete Faulkner - Building Approvals, Cairns, CCRC, QLD, Townsville

Today saw the release of the ABS original regional building approvals data for June, which allowed us to update the Conus Trend data series.

While residential approvals fell 17.3% in Queensland in June (see here for more detail) today’s data shows that it’s the regions outside Greater Brisbane where the declines are being seen more sharply. Greater Brisbane fell 13.3% y/y but approvals were down 29.6% y/y in the Rest of Queensland to a new low.

Across the North we see Trend approvals in the Cairns SA4 region fall to an all-time low of just 55, which is a 20.8% decline for the year. In Townsville too approvals were down 4.9% for the year at just 41.

When considering the data at the Local Govt Area level we see Cairns Regional Council (incl Douglas Shire) down 5.0% y/y at 40; Tablelands Regional Council (incl Mareeba Shire) unchanged for the year at 14 and the Cassowary Coast down 43.6% y/y to just 3 Trend approvals in June.

Townsville City Council remains positive for the year (+15.7% y/y) at 37, although this comes off a historically low level for the city in 2018/19.

The full Conus Regional Building Approvals Trend data for QLD 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 – Jun 2020