Housing construction stalls
Housing construction was a bit disappointing in the June quarter, with the value of work done on the construction of new houses declining slightly from $12.8 billion to $12.6 billion.
There was a further increase in attached dwelling construction, but not enough to offset the decline for houses.
There was a very modest increase in renovations activity, leading to a flat result overall for housing construction work done.
The figure for engineering construction work done did lift by 6 per cent to $37 billion, but essentially only due to a gigantic $3.2 billion or 547 per cent lift in engineering (resources) construction in the Northern Territory.
I don't have any detail of what this relates to, but it looks lumpy - probably some CapEx investment in a Darwin gas project - and isn't included here on an accruals basis, one would assume.
Edit: it related to a floating platform for Santos Barossa LNG which was bolted on - largely already accounted for in investment/imports (h/t Justin Fabo of Antipodean Macro).
Engineering work done for the public sector on infrastructure projects is now easing back.
Overall, although the total construction figures were 'rescued' by a one-off spike in engineering work and rose by 3 per cent to $76.1 billion, it was a somewhat disappointing release for residential construction, which appeared to stall.
As always, James Foster ran through the key points in more detail
here.
---
1. Download our property buying guide
Download our free property buying guide here.
You can also check out a few of our recent property purchases here.
Get in contact with us today if strategic property investment is your thing.
2. Subscribe to our Top 10 Podcasts for Investors
Listen in to our podcasts
The Australian Property Podcast is rapidly becoming one of Australia's biggest business podcasts, now with well over 50,000 audio downloads per month, and growing fast.
And our popular Low Rates High Returns Show also remains available on Spotify.
3. Subscribe for my free daily blog
Subscribe for my free daily blog with more than 4 million hits here.
You can also catch up with me daily on Twitter here, where I'm far too active daily and have over 15,300 followers.
By the way, I'm an 8-times published author on finance, investing, and business, so you can check out some of my books here.
My new book, co-authored with Cate Bakos is available to buy here or on Amazon here - check out our free Buy Right podcast series here.
4. Work with me privately
For a limited time you can book in a free diagnosis call with me here, so book in a call today.
