Housing Approval Figures

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:31): My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer update the chamber on what the latest housing approvals figures indicate about the state of the economic recovery in South Australia?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:32): I am sure all members in this chamber will be delighted at the continuing series of good economic news that continues to be issued because, as I highlighted yesterday, confidence in our economy and economic recovery is critical in terms of creating jobs and saving businesses in South Australia.

I indicated in the budget last year that, if we are going to have economic growth and jobs growth in our economy, we need businesses to have the confidence to not only invest in their businesses but also create jobs in their businesses, and we need households to have the confidence to resume pre-COVID spending levels, if they are able, and to have that confidence in the state's economic future and their own personal future, because that also assists the economic recovery and jobs recovery.

The new building approval figures released only this morning by the Australian Bureau of Statistics are very positive news from South Australia's viewpoint. Surging demand for new home builds reached a record high in seasonally adjusted terms in December (these are December figures)—a staggering 34 per cent jump for the month of December. It also shows that the total number of dwelling approvals, which also includes units, townhouses and apartments, in addition to houses, rose by 17 per cent in December.

Nationally, those new dwelling approval figures comparatively were 11 per cent—still positive, but nowhere near as strong as the South Australian figure. The Australian Bureau of Statistics' Director of Construction Statistics, Mr Daniel Rossi, said:

Private house approvals were strong across the country, with Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia hitting record highs in seasonally adjusted terms. Federal and state housing stimulus measures—

I note that, 'Federal and state housing stimulus measures'—

along with record low interest rates, have contributed to strong demand for detached dwellings.

As I indicated to the chamber yesterday in response to a question, we have had 8,575 applications for the HomeBuilder grant so far, of which 5,700 are for new builds and 1,671 are for substantial renovations.

With that very strong pipeline of work, which will continue for the bulk of this year, our construction industry and in particular the residential segment of the construction industry, as those figures indicate, should be part of the engine room for growth and jobs growth in our economy for all of this year and we hope leading into the early part of next year as well.