Residential building commencement data demonstrates robust growth of 31.9 per cent from the previous quarter across both single dwelling houses (31.4 per cent) and multi-unit dwellings (33.0 per cent).

The 12-month rolling total saw the building commencement of 41,408 single dwelling homes and 21,407 multi-unit dwellings: a total of 62,815 residential buildings from the year to August 2021.

This is a 6.7 per cent increase in total residential commencements from the previous 12 months.

This has been driven by single dwelling housing commencements, which saw an additional 5,334 homes being built compared to the previous 12-month period, as Homebuilder spiked a surge of demand in this sector.

Peak demands in home building were not exclusive in Australia, as Governments around the world looked to build themselves out of the pandemic induced economic downturn. With limited global supply of timber and materials, on top of covid has presented difficulties for building and construction

Multi-unit dwellings have not fared as well, with commencements below the 10-year average of recorded quarterly data. However, overall building activity has remained steady despite the pandemic.

The graph above compares the number of building commencements less the number of buildings completed in Victoria at the end of every financial year for the last 20 years.

The graph demonstrates that in the last year, Victoria’s rate of completion has been unable to match the number of commencements for the first time in the last two decades. In the last decade, our State has seen surges of building commencements in multi-units in 2010, 2011 and 2015 financial years.

ABS data on residential building completions saw a steady increase of 588 residential building completions compared to the previous 12-month period.

In fact, the June quarter 2021 completions of residential dwellings are close to 10 per cent higher compared to the 10-year average.

However, as the completion growth has slowed in the last year it has been unable to match the sudden increase in building commencements.

This is mostly due to trade and supply shortages and lockdown restrictions here in Victoria. Ongoing shortages in materials and labor are expected to push later into next year, our state’s building completion rate can expect to see fewer homes being completed during this time.

Master Builders Victoria’s ongoing advocacy around keeping construction open and supply shortages coupled with our industries resilience has shown that building activity continues to be a major powerhouse in fueling the state’s economic recovery.

 Master Builder’s Victoria continues to work closely with the Commissioner for Better Regulation, Anna Cronin to deliver medium to long term solutions to supply shortages and is working on addressing trade shortages for the industry.