Building pipeline struggles
Building approvals bounced +20.6 per cent in May to 15,032, possibly clearing off an Easter backlog.
House approvals were fairly flat for the month, and at -15 per cent lower than a year earlier continue to trend lower.
The bounce was overwhelmingly due to an increase in unit approvals in Sydney in this lumpy data series, with most other capital cities still trending lower.
This was a welcome monthly increase, although around 15,000 building approvals in a month is still a relatively weak figure overall.
Indeed the annual total for building approvals continued to fall to 177,000, and th annual figure appears set to take out the pandemic lows in due course.
Given record population growth this is obviously a weak trend.
James Foster ran through the detailed figures here.
Construction pipeline fades
Separately the ABS released figures for lending, which increased by +4.8 per cent for housing, including a +6.2 per cent increase for investors, rebounding from recent declines.
You're in luck because Jimmy Foster ran through those numbers as well for you here.
These figures were also coming off a low base, however, and - as the Housing Industry Association reported - showed ongoing weakness for construction lending.
Source: Housing Industry Association
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We discussed in this week's podcast episode how lending settings are extraordinarily tight at the moment, but at least there is some respite with non-banks reducing their assessment buffers to a more sensible 2 per cent.
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In other news, ANZ-Indeed job advertisements fell -2.5 per cent in June to be -7.2 per cent lower than their September 2022 highs.
Terry McCrann wrote for The Australian that interest rates tomorrow are "all-but-certain" to be kept on hold, perhaps influencing market pricing.
Markets are pricing a 29 per cent likelihood of a hike tomorrow, while the 3-year bond yield dropped 9 basis points from 4.09 per cent to 4.00 per cent.
