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ISCOVER
Staff Reporter
New home building tumbled back into recession last financial year, new research has revealed.
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According to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the total number of new home commencements in the 2011/12 financial year fell 11.7 per cent to 138,852.
“There have only been two periods in the last 15 years where the total number of dwelling commencements in a 12 month period have been lower than they are now - the first was at the time the GST was introduced, and the second was in 2009 during the worst of the financial crisis,” Housing Industry Association chief economist Harley Dale said.
Mr Dale said the government needed to get involved and change the current policies in place in order to fix the problem.
"Too few governments in Australia are implementing the policies required to stem the negative consequences a persistently weak new housing sector is having on tens of thousands of Australian businesses and many more labour market participants.”
“Dwelling commencements increased by 4.6 per cent in the June 2012 quarter. However, this only partially reclaims ground lost in the previous quarter and leaves annualised housing starts at a low 136,484."
In seasonally adjusted terms, detached dwelling commencements fell by 2.2 per cent in the June 2012 quarter.
"This result continued the downward trajectory and provided not only the tenth consecutive quarterly decline but also the lowest number of detached house starts in any quarter since June 2001.”
