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Building activity is finally easing after a long impasse, and the picture is brightest away from the east coast.
CommSec’s latest State of the States report, which provides a quarterly economic snapshot of all Australia’s states and territories, compared the performance of Australia’s states and territories in eight economic indicators: dwelling starts, unemployment, population growth, economic growth, equipment investment, housing finance, retail spending and construction work.
When it came to key housing indicators in Q1 2024, the report revealed a clear leader.
South Australia took out the top spot for both construction work done and dwelling starts, with the state seeing a 22.2 per cent rise in construction work versus the decade average.
Hot on its heels was NSW, which saw 15.9 per cent more construction work this quarter than the decade average, ahead of Tasmania (15.7 per cent), Victoria (14.4 per cent) and the ACT (5.6 per cent).
While Western Australia did not fare well compared to the decade average, the state reigned supreme in terms of yearly growth.
Construction work on the west coast leaped an impressive 21.4 per cent compared to early 2023.
With high construction costs and planning backlogs still putting a dampener on new dwelling starts, all eight Australian states and territories saw results below the decade average.
Here, again, South Australia was in the lead, with a minimal -8.6 per cent decline, while Tasmania came second for decade starts.
When it came to home prices, the strongest state was Western Australia, which saw an 18.7 per cent rise in dwelling prices over the past 12 months.
Only the Northern Territory saw a home price decline, with all seven other states and territories experiencing an annual rise in home values.
Overall, CommSec named South Australia the strongest performing economy thanks to its consistency in “taking out the top spot on four of the report’s eight economic indicators”.
However, CommSec chief economist Craig James warned that there are signs the South Australian economy “is losing momentum”.
“Western Australia remains on top of the leaderboard of the annual growth rates of the eight economic indicators,” said James, who added that Western Australia “has the necessary momentum to pass South Australia to attain top spot in coming quarters”.
This is the third quarter in a row that Western Australia has been identified as having the strongest economic momentum.
“Overall, economies have slowed in response to higher interest rates, but have generally remained resilient, underpinned by firm population growth and low unemployment,” the chief economist concluded.
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