Housing starts in NT best in years

THE approvals of new houses in the Northern Territory are the highest in five years.

Latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data to April this year reveals 699 housing approvals, the highest since the 2016-17 April figure of 896.

That is 64 per cent more than the trough of the previous 12 months (2019-20), when 425 new houses were approved.

The increase is further evidence of the success of generous federal and NT Covid-19 building stimulus schemes that sparked a flood of new entrants into the nation’s housing market.

With the schemes now ended, Master Builders NT says the market in the Territory has dropped a gear post the BuildBonus and HomeBuilder grants.

Chief executive Dave Malone said 60 new Fidelity Certificates, for houses, units and extensions, across the Territory were issued last month.

“The number of certificates issued in May remained a little stronger than expected,” he said.

“It was particularly pleasing to see the number of certificates for new homes rising somewhat on the April figure.

“There were more certificates, or 15 per cent up on April.

“There was also some modest energy in the residential unit sector, but renovations/ extensions are dipping somewhat. It’s a sector of the market with high volatility as well.”

The total value of NT new house approvals in the 12 months to April was $323.4m.

A further $99.8m worth of residential alterations and additions was approved.

This meant the total approved housing spend was more than $423m.

Non-residential building approvals were valued at $961.3m.

This takes the total value of all NT building approvals over the 12 months to April to $1.4bn.

The ABS data follows further good news during the week showing that the number of jobs in the NT is trending higher than before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.

In the fortnight to May 22, the total number of jobs was 6 per cent higher than in the fortnight to March 14 last year.