Confirmed- 2015 was a record breaking year for new home builds

The ABS have released results today confirming that 2015 was the best year ever for new home building activity with New South Wales leading the way with new dwellings commenced with a 19.1 per cent increase with Tasmania +18.8 per cent and Queensland +18.7 per cent. Victoria and ACT also had increases with +17.3 per cent & +6.0 per cent but commencements fell in the Northern Territory -22.4 per cent, Western Australia -12.0 per cent and South Australia -9.4 per cent during 2015.

The Housing Industry Association (HIA) Senior Economist Shane Garrett said “During 2015, just over 220,000 new dwellings began construction,”  “This represents growth of 11 per cent on 2014, which was itself the previous record holder for new home activity.”

“It is impossible to overstate the importance of new home building in supporting economic activity over the past few years,” Shane Garrett went on to say. “The mining slump left a big hole in economic growth, which residential building has partly alleviated, providing much needed employment in construction.

Australia’s housing stock has been augmented significantly by the high levels of new home building.

This will benefit our economic capacity and living standards for decades to come,” added Shane Garrett.

“New home building is likely to have peaked last year, and we will see fewer new homes started in 2016,” predicted Shane Garrett. “Under current policy settings, new home building is then projected to fall below the levels required to provide for Australia’s long term housing needs. We must avoid this outcome by immediately tackling the heavy taxation burden on new home building, speeding up the planning process and doing more to deliver shovel-ready residential land.

In the absence of serious housing policy reform, there is a real risk that we will fall behind in the race for better living standards,” concluded Shane Garrett.

With record levels of new dwelling starting last year we at The Dragon Group have been kept busy in all our divisions Labour Hire, Permanent Placement recruitment and our Property & Development.  So if you in need of a ticketed and skilled labourer or have any questions regarding our services please don’t hesitate to contact us on 02 9939 2550