New home starts drop
New dwelling starts fell -1.1 per cent in the June quarter to just 40,293, seasonally adjusted.
In particular starts for units and apartments were extremely weak, falling to 13,756 to be -12.3 per cent lower over the year, with construction sector insolvencies running at record highs.
The number of new dwellings under construction has been in steady decline for the past two years now.
There were about 88,000 houses under construction as at June 2024, down from around 105,000 at the cycle highs.
New dwelling approvals in Sydney - especially for new unit projects - are not translating to new project starts, pointing to a chronic undersupply over the next few years as hot immigration combines with a steady return to city office work.
There was a bit of an uplift to completions in the three most populous states, albeit this only lifted total completions to 44,850, a long way short of the desired 60,000 per quarter.
---
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand cut the cash rate by 50 basis points from a 15-year high of 5.25 per cent to 4.75 per cent in a bid to stave off messy recessionary conditions:
I don't think Australia is immune to excess capacity, and we won't be too far behind.
