Tasmania’s home building market is responding to growing demand, with dwelling approvals at their highest level since 2010.
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Approvals increased for a fifth straight month in August, trend terms Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released on Wednesday showed.
That took monthly approvals to 264, up from 231 in March and around the levels of Tasmania’s real estate boom last decade.
Monthly approvals dropped into the 140s in late 2012 and early 2013.
Tasmanian Building and Construction Minister Guy Barnett said the latest data “again confirms Tasmania is going from strength to strength with the quantity and value of building work being approved around the state”.
“Tasmania continues to lead the nation in the total value of building approvals, with a massive increase of 46 per cent in the year to August 2018 compared to the previous year, which is the highest rate of growth in the country.
“The value of residential building work approved increased by 28.9 per cent over this period, again the highest growth rate in Australia.
“Tasmania also continues to outperform most of the nation in the number of dwelling approvals, with the state seeing a 2.3 per cent increase in approvals in trend terms in August 2018.”
Mr Barnett said it was the second highest level of monthly growth in dwelling approvals in the nation, and in contrast to a fall in the number of approvals nationally.
“Over the year to August 2018, dwelling approvals were 16.8 per cent higher than a year ago in trend terms, making Tasmania the second strongest growing jurisdiction for annual growth, behind the ACT’s increase of 64.9 per cent,” Mr Barnett said.