NSW Feels Construction Slow down

NSW has copped the worst of the slow down in construction activity through to March 2020 with total construction down -5.3% on the previous quarter.

Results from the ABS March quarter Construction activity data showed further contractions in the construction sector with a $2.5bn drop in residential work and a $1.0bn drop in engineering construction activity, compared to the same period last year. The Non Residential sector was the only sector to show some signs of growth on last year.

With the impacts from coronavirus unlikely to be show up until the June Quarter figures, the underlying trends point to a difficult period in construction ahead.

The seasonally adjusted estimate for total construction work done fell -1.0% to $49,481.2m in the March quarter and -6.5% over the past year with Engineering down -4.4%, Non Residential down -0.3% and Residential down -12.5% on the previous year.

Residential by State

As indicated above, the seasonally adjusted estimate for Residential work done fell 1.6% to $17 246.9m in the March quarter. This comprised;

• NSW down -5.3% (-22% below last year),
• Queensland up 1.0% (-17% below last year) ,
• South Australia up 1.8% (-0.1% below last year),
• Victoria down -0.6% (-3.2% below last year) and
• WA up 1.8% (-7.6% below last year).

Non Residential by State

The seasonally adjusted figure for all states showed a contraction of -0.02% to $11,67M in the March quarter. This comprised;

• NSW down -8.9% (-12.9% below last year),
• Queensland down -1.6% (10.0% above last year) ,
• South Australia up 5.5% (11.9% above last year),
• Victoria up 9.2% (7.4% above last year) and
• WA down -0.7% (0.4% below last year).