ABS Building Approvals show that the total number of dwellings approved fell 1.3 per cent in April 2011, in seasonally adjusted terms, after rising 8.6 per cent in March.

Dwelling approvals decreased for the month of April in New South Wales (-12.9 per cent), Western Australia (-9.6 per cent) and Tasmania (-8.7 per cent) while Queensland (+29.2 per cent), South Australia (+9.9 per cent) and Victoria (+0.3 per cent) recorded increases in seasonally adjusted terms.

In seasonally adjusted terms, approvals for private sector houses fell 3.3 per cent in April with falls in Victoria (-6.2 per cent), New South Wales (-3.8 per cent) and Queensland (-0.7 per cent) while there were rises in Western Australia (+5.1 per cent) and South Australia (+0.9 per cent).

The value of total building approved fell 18.8 per cent in April in seasonally adjusted terms. The value of total residential building fell by 1.3 per cent while non-residential building fell by 38.6 per cent after a 47.4 per cent rise in March.

HIA Senior Economist, Andrew Harvey commented: “April’s detached housing approvals represent the weakest monthly result since March 2009 and provide more evidence that house-building levels are heading back towards the GFC-affected lows of financial year 2008/09.

“What we’ve got with Australia’s residential building industry is an industry in severe pain, buckling under the pressure of tight credit conditions, higher interest rates, an inequitable tax burden and a range of supply-side obstacles. It also it doesn’t help that we have seen nothing of substance recently in terms of the housing supply reform process,” noted Harvey.

On a more positive note, approvals in the highly volatile private sector other dwellings segment rose by 2.2 per cent in April 2011, with a rise in private sector approvals more than offsetting a fall in the public sector.

“In terms of the jurisdictions we’ve seen a bit of a recovery in Queensland in April where approvals are up by 29.2 per cent after the weather-affected weak outcomes in February and March,” added Harvey.

Further details are available on the ABS site.