Territory residential approvals increase slightly after horror year
The Northern Territory’s residential construction sector had it tough last year, but out of the fog, a glimmer of hope appeared. And despite a local builder’s concerns about lifting levels of residential construction, the Chief Minister says she has an idea.
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The Northern Territory’s residential building industry enjoyed a brief surge in November after 12-months of dire outcomes in the key economic sector.
The latest ABS building approval figures released Tuesday show the Territory’s approvals increased by 2.6 per cent in November, the second strongest result in the country.
Nationally, November approvals increased by just 0.3 per cent with just the ACT topping the jurisdictions with an increase of 22.5 per cent.
In November, there were 40 residential building approvals in the Territory, three more than in October.
With the Territory building industry crying out for residential development opportunities, 2023 provided slim pickings for construction workers.
On an annual basis, approvals declined 14.9 per cent compared with 8.3 per cent nationally and year-on-year approvals fell 28.3 per cent compared with 13.5 per cent nationally.
In a twist, the value of residential approvals in the Territory dropped 16 per cent in November but year-on-year increased by 5.5 per cent to $383.9m to November.
The residential construction industry is seething at the NT Government’s complacency around residential housing and that interstate builders laugh at Darwin’s woeful residential construction portfolio.
One builder told the NT News in November that it had been seven years since a multistorey residential development had been built in Darwin – a time frame that coincided with the election of the Labor Government.
He said in the current high-interest rate climate, banks are refusing to lend unless they can be guaranteed a return.
Builders are concerned the expected population boost generated by Charles Darwin University’s new CBD campus will not translate into residential construction and Territory jobs.
He called on the government to provide incentives to help kickstart CBD residential development
In November Chief Minister and former Infrastructure Minister Eva Lawler urged developers with approvals to get cracking on their projects and said she had held talks with Singaporean developers who might be able to get stalled projects off the round.
“The issue is there are developers in the Darwin area that have land and some also have had approvals to develop apartments in the CBD, but they haven’t been able to get the finance through the banks to be able to do that,” she said.
“I went to Singapore and was talking to people that can develop, that have the money and currently build student or employee accommodation in places like Sydney.
“So if we’ve got people here that can’t or haven’t got the ability to be able to get the cash in or are holding on to that, the option is that there are other people that could possibly work in partnership with them.”
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