“The value of commercial building work approved jumped by 30.9% during December, finishing 2019 on a high note,” said Master Builders Chief Economist Shane Garrett.
“The strong result for December means that 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 that conditions are set to remain largely positive here,” Shane Garrett said.
“Today’s figures also indicate that new dwelling approvals eased slightly during December (-0.2%) and that the pipeline of new home building work is still quite a bit lower than it was a year ago,” he said.
“Leading indicators suggest that 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 Garrett 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,” said Shane Garrett.
