THE home building sector could continue to stagnate for the next six months with home building approvals figures – including a 1.4 per cent drop in Western Australia – showing a recovery is not yet in sight.
Nationwide home building approvals rose 1 per cent to 12,227 units in July, seasonally adjusted, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.
That was below economist forecasts of a 2 per cent rise in approvals in the month.
Approvals in June fell 3.5 per cent to an upwardly revised 12,106 units, their lowest level in two years. Dwelling approvals increased for the month of July in New South Wales (5.4 per cent) but decreased in Tasmania (-26.3 per cent), South Australia (-8.8 per cent), Victoria (-3.1 per cent) and Queensland (-1.8 per cent) in seasonally adjusted terms.
Approvals for private sector houses fell 0.2 per cent in July with falls in Queensland (-14.5 per cent), WA (-8.2 per cent) and South Australia (-3.0 per cent) while there were rises in Victoria (8.7 per cent) and NSW (4.6 per cent)
JP Morgan economist Helen Kevans said the modest rise was in line with expectations and did not begin to offset the slump in building approvals during the first half of the year.
“In the first six months of the year, approvals were down around 20 per cent, so there is definitely still a lot of weakness on the building approvals front,” Ms Kevans said.
