Construction of tens of thousands of approved dwellings that could provide housing for a city the size of Ballarat has been put on the backburner due to soaring building costs, labour shortages, a lack of sufficient pre-sales and concerns over builder failures, a new report by KPMG has found.

Analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics data by the firm’s urban economist Terry Rawnsley found that as of December 31, over 37,000 dwellings were approved but had not yet commenced construction, a 9 per cent increase on the five-year average.