Nearly $500 million worth of building works completed in the ACT in the September quarter

Nearly $500 million was spent on the construction of buildings around the ACT in the September quarter last year, new figures show.

The value of residential and non-residential building activity across the capital during the quarter was significantly higher than a decade earlier, from $484 million to $299 million, seasonally adjusted.

But the value of work is more than 10 per cent lower than the same period one year earlier: $542 million, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Building Activity, Australia, September 2015 report released on Wednesday.

The data revealed the value of building work completed in the ACT was close to 11 times higher than when records began more than 40 years ago in September 1974, when residential and non-residential construction was worth $41 million, seasonally adjusted.

Of the $485 million’s worth of building activity done in the previous September quarter, $289 million was spent on residential work and another $195 million on commercial construction.

Meanwhile, the value of building work still in the pipeline was worth more than $15 million during the same period.

The ABS recorded $1520 million worth of construction under way in Canberra, with commercial projects worth $698 million and residential works worth $821 million (not seasonably adjusted).

Meanwhile, 418 planned dwellings had been approved and were awaiting construction.

New homes built in the September quarter were worth $256 million (seasonally adjusted), down almost 25 per cent from the $342 million completed during the same period one year earlier.

But the value of constructed dwellings has jumped by almost 50 per cent over the past decade, with $136 million’s worth of construction completed in the 2005 September quarter.

Meanwhile, alterations to existing Canberra homes completed in the previous September quarter were worth a combined $33 million, up from $29 million recorded in September, 2005.