Australia’s construction industry enjoyed an improved performance in July, with the pipeline of new projects currently sitting above the five year average, a healthy quarterly trend of new projects moving into construction, and the estimated construction value of active projects up 19 percent year on year according to the latest CoreLogic Cordell Construction Monthly, released today.
Australia’s construction pipeline has an improved outlook, with July’s number (1,963) representing the largest number of new construction projects since November 2017, with a total estimated value of $18.4bn.
Despite the improved monthly performance, new project announcements were however 12 percent lower year on year.
Analysing by construction project type identified that civil engineering made up nearly half the value of new projects (48 percent), despite the lowest median project value across all core industry categories (just $500,000) and only 25 percent of the number of projects.
Apartment projects accounted for the largest share of new pipeline projects by number (29 percent) and second largest share by value (20 percent), with a median project value of $1.2million.
The number of Australian construction projects entering the construction phase however, wasn’t so favourable, slipping 11 percent month-on-month in July, with industrial projects the only broad category to record a rise in July (up 20 percent).
The quarterly trend is much healthier according to the report, with the number of projects moving into construction increasing 20 percent over the past three months.
From a value perspective, the month-on-month fall is less severe; the overall value of projects moving to construction was $7.7 billion in July (down 2 percent from June but actually 19 percent higher year-on-year).
The mining sector, says the report, accounted for only 1 percent of new construction projects, but on a value basis ($2 billion total, $135million median value) these projects accounted for 26 percent of new construction activity.
