29 November 2012
The latest ABS figures for building construction expenditure indicate a positive improvement for NSW compared to Queensland and Victoria, says the Urban Taskforce.
The seasonally adjusted September quarter building construction expenditure of $4.6 billion indicates that NSW is recovering from a low base, says Urban Taskforce CEO Chris Johnson.
We still have a long way to go however, as the NSW quarterly per capita expenditure is $633 while Queensland is $759 and Victoria is $1,047.
The per capita graph however shows both Victoria and Queensland trending downwards while NSW is trending upwards. Clearly confidence is returning to NSW and the housing undersupply is driving more expenditure.
The construction dollars are the result of planning approvals many months ago and it will be interesting to see the next round of approval data from the ABS.
The NSW Government initiatives in the state budget were very supportive of new construction particularly in the housing sector and this is giving more confidence to the industry. The Planning Green Paper which is supportive of simplifying the states complex planning system is also a positive signal.
It is important that the proposed planning reforms are not watered down to appease anti-development groups so that NSW can look forward to reaching the $1,000 per person quarterly expenditure that Victoria has been achieving for the last four years and Queensland achieved from 2004 to 2009.
With industry confidence returning with a simpler planning system, proposed changes to local government structures and strata legislation, there is a real potential for NSW to become number one again in the amount of building work being undertaken.
