WA tops Aussie building league

Western Australia has again topped the rankings in the Australia Housing Industry Association bi-annual Housing Scorecard report.

The report benchmarks the contemporary performance of 14 key indicators of activity in residential building against long term averages in each state and territory. This analysis is aggregated in a scoring system to generate a league table ranking the relative strengths and weaknesses of residential building conditions in each jurisdiction.

"Western Australia has once again topped the rankings, remaining the strongest residential building market in the country, ahead of New South Wales. There is daylight between the two strongest states and the rest of the pack," said Harley Dale, HIA Chief Economist.

"Amongst the other states, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and the Northern Territory are clustered closely together in the middle of the pack. South Australia and Queensland are still just off the pace, but there were some improvements in both those states.

"Tasmania remains the weakest residential building market in the country. This is an unenviable position the state has now held for six consecutive quarters. There have been some signs of improving conditions in the Tasmanian economy, but we are yet to see this flow through into the residential building sector."

Dale added that the rapid turn of fortunes in New South Wales is the big story in this report.

He said that six months ago the report noted there was momentum building in New South Wales, and this has been confirmed by the latest analysis. New South Wales is now the second strongest residential building market in the country, having been ranked number five only six months earlier.

"Much of the recovery in New South Wales can be attributed to the surge in activity in the multi-unit sector, but the detached home market in New South Wales ranks among the strongest in the country. The renovations market remains a soft spot for area, but there are signs that conditions in this part of the market are improving," Dale concluded.

Andrew Batt, International Group Editor of PropertyGuru Group, wrote this story. To contact him about this or other stories email andrew@propertyguru.com.sg


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