Homes are being built quicker and fewer projects with an approval are being abandoned

In the quest to build more homes, we need more developers to push forward with housing projects and we need the new housing to be built in a more timely manner.

Each year, the Building Activity data for the June quarter highlights the average number of quarters from dwelling commencement to completion and the abandonment rate of new projects.

The good news is that some dwelling types have seen a fall in the time from commencement to completion over the 2024-25 financial year and fewer new dwellings are being abandoned once they have building approval.

While some dwellings are being completed more quickly than they were in the previous financial year, we’ve still seen the time taken to construct new dwellings trend higher over time.

Housing construction seems to be somewhat of an outlier whereby despite technological advancements over time there, are no meaningful gains in the productivity of constructing these homes.

An important point to note, this analysis has nothing to do with how long it takes to get approvals through government, it is purely looking at when the dwelling is commenced and when it is completed.

On average over the 2024-25 financial year, new houses took 3.07 quarters from commencement to completion, down from 3.47 quarters over the previous financial year. Although it is encouraging to see new houses built more quickly, a decade ago it was taking 2.2 quarters so construction timeframes have blown out.