Commercial building approvals end 2019 strongly

Commercial building work finished 2019 strongly and is expected to remain elevated in coming months, according to the Master Builders Association.

Master Builders Chief Economist Shane Garrett said: “The value of commercial building work approved jumped by 30.9% during December, finishing 2019 on a high note.

“The strong result for December means the volume of commercial building work on the ground is set to remain elevated over the coming months,” he said.

“Building activity on the commercial side reached all-time highs over recent times and today’s ABS figures indicate conditions are set to remain largely positive here,” Shane said.

“The figures also indicate new dwelling approvals eased slightly during December (-0.2%) and the pipeline of new home building work is still quite a bit lower than it was a year ago,” he said.

“Leading indicators suggest a home building recovery is not too far off, however. Lending to housing investors is expanding again and the First Home Buyer part of the market has a lot of wind behind its sails. House prices are also gathering momentum across most major cities,” Shane said.

“Both residential and commercial building projects rely on the creation of support infrastructure to allow them to proceed. With economic growth stuck well below par, we urge all levels of government to do more to speed up the delivery of committed infrastructure projects and allow faster economic growth to be unlocked,” he said.

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