ACT records biggest drop in new home building approvals in February: ABS

​The ACT has recorded the biggest drop in new home building approvals in February despite a national rise, ABS data released on Monday shows.

Approvals fell by 15.6 per cent in trend terms in the territory – the lowest result across Australia’s states and territories.

In contrast, the number of new dwellings approved nationally rose by 0.8 per cent, off the back of an eight-month fall.

NSW had the biggest jump in approvals at 2.5 per cent, followed by Victoria with a 1.4 per cent increase, Tasmania at 0.9 per cent and South Australia at 0.5 per cent, in trend terms.

Like Canberra, the Northern Territory recorded a significant drop in approvals with a 12.3 per cent fall in February.

Approvals fell by 0.7 per cent in Queensland and 0.2 per cent in Western Australia.

Master Builders Association ACT executive director Kirk Coningham said the ACT’s approval slump was consistent with residential land releases and sales.

He expected the figure to pick up in light of current and near-future land sales in new suburbs like Taylor and Throsby.

“I think that [figure] might be the residual impact of tight land supply in the ACT, particularly for standalone blocks,” he said.

“We expect that to improve in the next few months as more land has been sold.”

Housing Industry Association senior economist Shane Garrett said there were 229,091 new dwelling approvals in Australian over the past 12 months, maintaining a pipeline of work for much of 2017.

However, a national downturn in approvals wasn’t unexpected.

“Even though we saw a sharp bounce in new dwelling approvals [across Australia] during February, the overall building approvals profile is consistent with our expectation that new home construction will revert to lower levels over the next few years,” he said.

“The multi-unit side of the market will see the greater share of the reduction in new home building activity.”