The Housing Industry Association has earmarked 2010 as the real turnaround point in new residential building work following the release of preliminary figures by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.
Seasonally adjusted work done on new residential dwellings fell by 1.5% in the June 2009 quarter to an annualised worth of $33.2bn, 6.4% down on a year earlier, while work done on detached houses fell by 2.7% over the June quarter to be worth $22.3bn in annualised terms, according to the ABS.
HIA chief economist Harley Dale said that a recovery would emerge in new home building from late 2009, but it would be 2010 before a reasonable lift in construction activity emerged.
"Low interest rates, the First Home Owner Boost, and Federal programs such as the Social Housing Initiative will all contribute to a much needed recovery in new home construction in 2009/10 following a five year trend decline," Dale said.
"It is clear, however that residential projects are getting bogged down in the approvals process - the rate of increase in building approvals in 2009 to date is lagging considerably behind the strong surge we have seen in new home lending", he added.
This suggested that home building recovery would be very modest to begin with and would not show up in earnest for construction work done until 2010, according to Dale.
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