Number of new homes under constructions booms
- Posted By Ndl 1 Realty
The Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed new data showing the upsurge of construction activity from July to September last year despite the imposed lockdowns in the same quarter of that year in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.
The extremely high number of new constructions in the September quarter was hugely attributed to the Federal Government’s HomeBuilder Program, which will support most of the commenced projects of that quarter.
Under the HomeBuilder program, which was rolled out as part of the COVID-19 economic assistance, the Federal Government shall provide a grant of $25,000 to build a new home.
The HomeBuilder scheme ended in April 2021. Under the original design of the scheme, projects had to commence within six months – i.e. by the September quarter.
However, the deadline for all projects has since been extended and now builders have until mid-2022 for their projects to get started.
While many expected the rise of construction activities following the support of the Federal Government, it was still astonishing to see the number of projects initiated despite the lockdowns imposed in Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.
The ABS data on the value of work done shows that more work was done on new houses in the September quarter than at any other point in history.
According to the ABS data, detached houses take seven months on average – or just over two quarters – to build. With the huge pipeline of projects to work through, that could take even longer.
This means that the projects commenced in the September quarter last year are still ongoing. Construction activity will continue to be strong as builders work through this backlog of projects.
With the uptick in Omicron cases in the country, things might change in the near term, and the activity in the construction sector is sure to be impacted.