The Hunter Valley’s massive development boom continued unabated over the last 12 months with Maitland, Cessnock, Dungog and Singleton all recording huge building development increases.
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For the third year in success NSW finished on top of the Housing Industry Association’s national scorecard for residential building.
The scorecard analysis ranks each of the eight states and territories based on the performance of 12 key residential building indicators.
HIA figures show that on the 12 months to October 2017, Maitland saw 907 new residential developments, an increase of 23 per cent on the previous 12 months.
The Hunter saw strong increases in approvals in both the detached homes and multi-unit side of the sector – they were up 3 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.
- HIA Hunter executive director Craig Jennion
Cessnock increased 25 per cent with 518 new builds, Dungog jumped 79 per cent with 70 new builds, while Singleton set the pace with a massive 173 per cent increase on the back of 41 new developments.
“Whilst there is significant variation in conditions across the Hunter, the most positive news has been the strong overall performance of the sector in the past three months”, HIA Hunter executive director Craig Jennion said.
“During this time the Hunter saw strong increases in approvals in both the detached homes and multi-unit side of the sector compared to a year earlier – they were up 3 per cent and 24 per cent respectively.
“This high approvals pipeline, combined with very low lending rates and strong business and consumer confidence should ensure that into the New Year the residential construction sector continues to remain buoyant.”
Mr Jennion said that over the 12 months to October 2017 a total of 4,476 approvals had been issued for new dwellings across the Hunter, a rise of nearly 300 for the year to October 2016.
The strong growth was also apparent in Newcastle with an increase of 13 per cent with 1419 developments.
At nearby Lake Macquarie however, there was a nine per cent decrease.
And at Port Stephens there was an even more pronounced drop – new builds were down 23 per cent.