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Final figures released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirm that new residential building work fell sharply in the March 2009 quarter.
The weak start to 2009 further highlights the importance of government-funded new home construction, Housing Industry Association, chief economist Dr Harley Dale said.
“The timely roll-out of the social housing initiative to build 20,000 dwellings, together with other federal government programs such as the National Rental Affordability Scheme (NRAS) and the Housing Affordability Fund (HAF), are essential to ensuring that a new home building recovery gathers legs rather than peters out,” Dr Dale said.
Seasonally adjusted, the construction of new residential dwellings fell by a downwardly revised 7 per cent in the March 2009 quarter to an annualised worth of $33.1 billion, 4.8 per cent down on a year earlier.
Work on detached houses fell 9 per cent during the March quarter to $22.5 billion.
