FTMA Australia engaged the services of Tim Woods of Industry Edge to provide a housing update for FTMA and its members and has the pdf available on its website. This second housing update focuses on the dwelling approvals in April and what they mean for the housing industry later this year. Source: Timberbiz
The briefing also discusses what difference the new HomeBuilder scheme could have on the construction industry.
According to the report the Government’s $688 million ‘HomeBuilder’ scheme, announced in early June, is either carefully targeted or too narrow, depending on your perspective. The view is that whether it is too narrow or not, it has been carefully targeted.
The report also states that expectations of a massive decline in dwelling approvals in April moved out another month, as seasonally adjusted approvals declined just 1.8% on the prior month. At 15,123 total approvals, the expectation of a fall of more than 10% is now anticipated to be delayed into the next few months.
In April, free standing approvals slipped 2.2% compared with March, falling back to 8929 approvals after a particularly strong March. Townhouse approvals were down 12.7%, but Flat and Apartment approvals lifted 3.8% on March.
The driver for higher than expected dwelling approvals in April was the lag effect between project initiation at one end and specific building approvals at the other. The new consensus is that the approvals data for April is dealing with pre-pandemic housing commitments some of which were committed in 2019, but most in early 2020.
The report can be found at
https://ftmanews.com/wp-content/uploads/FTMA-Housing-Update-June.pdf
