Sutherland Shire real estate: what happened to new home approvals in January

DATA journalist MARK FLACK compares new home approvals with 2017. Here's what he found in Sutherland Shire.

Sutherland Shire new homes activity showed resilience in January, up on the previous year, as approvals stayed at low levels nationally.

The council approved 213 new homes, an increase on last year when national building activity remained relatively strong, according to the latest ABS data.

The value of residential construction work inSutherland Shire climbed to$149.7 million, bolstering the work prospects for its legion of tradies.

Experts believe it can take as little as three months for new building approvals to flow through to construction jobs.

The report also revealed:

- all construction work, including non-residential, totalled $152.5 million;

- $3.1 million in renovation work was approved;

- houses accounted for 6 per cent of approved residential building projects.

The Sutherland Shire results come as residential development continues to struggle in many parts of the country.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said housing approvals improved slightly between December and January, up 2.5 per cent, but remained much lower than figures a year earlier.

Nationally, fewer than 14,500 new dwellings were approved based on seasonally adjusted figures.

At the same time last year that number was more than 19,500.

Master Builders Australia chief economist Shane Garrett said ‘ongoing difficulties’ in the flow of credit and concerns around the direction of housing policy post-election were having negative effects on building activity.

“The rise in approvals during January follows a run of weak results during the back end of last year. Higher density housing in particular has lost a lot of ground over the past 12 months,” he said.

“Despite the welcome increase in approvals during January, we are still down by almost 30 per cent compared with this time last year.”

Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon echoed sentiments over the impact of the credit squeeze as banks reduced the amount of money they are prepared to lend each customer.

“The impact of the credit squeeze is expected to moderate over the first half of 2019, as the market adjusts to these new limits,” he said.

“Despite the small increase this month, the pipeline of building work is now being reduced as the number of approvals slowed through the course of 2018.”

Building approval figures are released monthly by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Figures for work approved in February will be released next month.