New housing starts in Western Australia were down 19.9 per cent for the September quarter.
New housing starts in Western Australia were down 19.9 per cent for the September quarter.
Figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today show nationally the number of housing starts fell 13.2 per cent in seasonally adjusted terms.
After spiking in March, approvals have fallen in every month through to the end of the September quarter.
The number of housing starts fell by 14.5 per cent in New South Wales, 25.2 per cent in Queensland, 5.7 per cent in South Australia and 30.5 per cent in the ACT.
Housing starts rose by 1.5 per cent in Victoria, 22 per cent in Tasmania and 27.6 per cent in the Northern Territory.
CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian said the overall fall of 13.2 per cent is the biggest quarterly slide in a decade.
"There is no doubt that activity in the housing sector is slowing," said Mr Sebastian.
The Housing Industry Association said the figure was a worse-than-expected result.
"Every category of dwelling starts fell, across both the private and public sectors, with the magnitude of the result driven largely by the fall in public sector "other dwellings" which is down by 26.6 per cent in the September quarter," said Housing Industry Association senior economist Andrew Harvey.
"This is due to the unwinding of the Federal Government's Social Housing Initiative, with the number of public sector "other dwelling" starts falling from 17,327 in the June quarter to 12,726 in the September quarter," said Mr Harvey.
The Master Builders Association said that the slide needed to be urgently addressed by the government.
Master Builders' chief economist Peter Jones said, "The recovery in residential building will be shortlived unless policy changes are implemented."
"Three or hour years building 200,000 plus dwellings per annum is needed to not only meet the demands of a growing population, but to make inroads into the massive deficit of housing that has accrued through a long phase of underbuilding," said Mr Jones.
"Unless there is urgent reform to address bottlenecks, the strong supply response needed to meet demand will not eventuate, with dire consequences for housing affordability."
