Dwelling starts retrace
Dwelling commencements hit a record high 68,000 in the June 2021 quarter - as the HomeBuilder stimulus kick-started a detached house bonanza around most of inhabited Australia - but fell again in the last quarter of 2021, back down to 50,000.
Despite this, the number of dwellings under construction remained high, at a total of around 230,000.
This included over 100,000 detached homes still under construction, spread far and wide around the country.
Some of these may not complete, given the sharp increase in materials and labour costs, but it's still quite a pipeline.
Units under construction remained under 130,000, driven by some much-needed supply coming online in Queensland.
There were still 31,000 dwellings approved, but not yet commenced, and I doubt this figure will decrease given the high cost of building right now.
Overall, dwelling commencements were on the way down in Q4, and the first quarter of 2022 may well be to be lower as well due to COVID disruptions.
Recent flooding has only added to the already high level of pressure on Australia's rental markets.
