A fall in apartment starts led to a dip in overall new home starts in the December 2005 quarter, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released this week.
The figures show that new home starts fell by 7.5 per cent to 35,846, leading to an overall drop in 2005 of 7.7 per cent.
Detached house starts fell by 3 per cent to 25,486, a level 2.8 per cent lower than at the end of 2004. Multi-unit starts dropped by 15.8 per cent to 10,042, the second sharp fall in a row, to be at a level 18.8 per cent lower than that seen in the December 2004 quarter.
Harley Dale, Chief Economist with building industry body HIA, predicts that housing starts will be lower in 2005/06, with the easing in the amount of work in the pipeline flowing through into an on-going decline in housing starts.
"This is especially evident in the apartment market. Detached house starts are falling to a far more moderate extent and that is the case across most parts of the country," Mr Dale said.
"Building approvals, new home sales, and new housing finance all suggest we will see housing starts form a base as we move through 2006," he said.
"There were 152,716 housing starts in 2005 compared to the underlying demand for housing of over 160,000 starts per annum. We expect to see evidence of a sustained recovery in starts coming through in 2006/07."
On a state-by-state basis, the number of housing starts fell everywhere except in the Northern Territory. Starts were down by 21.1 per cent in the ACT and fell by 13.1 per cent in Tasmania, by 12.6 per cent in New South Wales, by 12.5 per cent in Victoria, by 6.8 per cent in South Australia, by 4.5 per cent in Queensland, and by 3.2 per cent in Western Australia. Starts increased by 16.8 per cent in the Northern Territory.
