Australia’s Detached Home Boom Continues to Rise Higher Than Ever

The country now has the highest number of detached homes currently under construction since 1960.

The December Building Activity report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that the number of dwelling unit commencements, which occurred throughout Australia, came in at a whopping 51,679 during the quarter.

Despite the expiration of the deadline for the Commonwealth Homebuilder program in March, this number still represents an annual commencement rate of more than 200,000 homes.

This implies a level of residential building activity, which has never been since the apartment building boom of 2015 to 2018.  Across the calendar in 2021, single-detached home commencements came in at 147,764. This is the highest number on record in any calendar year, since the previous peak of 166,371 in 1988.

Due to delays, national disasters and the pandemic, the number of detached houses under construction (and stuck there in some cases) is still 40% higher than pre-Covid levels in December 2019.

This represents the highest level recorded since the dataset commenced in 1960. Building approvals, finance approvals and new home sales all continue to show a strong volume of work entering the pipeline.