Slowing of QLD’s building approvals boom is largely due to a slowing of growth in the regions

Posted on August 10, 2021 by Pete Faulkner - Building Approvals, Cairns, QLD, Townsville, Uncategorized

Today’s’ ABS original regional building approvals data for June allows us to update our Conus Trend series for Queensland regions. As we saw last week QLD’s rate of growth of approvals fell to 38.5% y/y (seasonally adjusted) in June; it had been as high as 86.6% in March.

What today’s data shows us is that this slowdown is being driven mainly by the regions. In Greater Brisbane the Conus Trend data shows the rate of growth at 33.5% y/y, which is down from as high as almost 45% at the end of 2020. However, in the Rest of QLD, although the growth rate remains very elevated, we see a sharp slowdown from growth of 104% just a few months ago to 85.4% in June. {Note the Conus Trend and ABS s.a., while based on the same original ABS data, are not comparable}

In the North we are seeing a similar slowing pattern playing out. In the Cairns SA4 Trend approvals have dipped to 123 in June which is up 57.2% from a year ago. However, this represents a decline of about 10 approvals per month from recent highs when the rate of growth stood as high as 158%.

In Townsville too there is a slowdown taking place. June Trend approvals were 112 (about 10 down from recently monthly highs) and the pace of growth, while still very impressive coming off a low base, has dipped to 129% from highs of 144%.

The complete Conus Regional Building Approvals Trend data for the QLD regions is available for download below. Please feel free to use this data but kindly acknowledge Conus when you do so.

Conus Regional Building Approvals QLD – June 2021