NSW building activity graphs
To assist in understanding how building approvals impact the supply of housing the following graphs show the average number of months between approval occurring and construction commencing, the average number of months between construction commencing and the building being completed, the number of dwellings that have been approved but not yet commenced, and the number of buildings completed each quarter.
Since 2013-14 the time lag between approval and commencement of dwellings has generally increased, especially for apartments where it has increased from an average of 3.4 months in 2013-14 to 7.8 months in 2023-24.
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Maps
Across 2024-25, the largest number of dwellings were approved in the North West Sydney (921), Blacktown-Parramatta (707), and South West Sydney (678) regions.
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Interactive tables
Fifty-three electorates recorded an increase in the number of dwellings approved between 2023-24 and 2024-25. Some electorates experienced a large increase in the number of dwellings approved, including Castle Hill (+1,575), Heffron (+1,480) and Maroubra (+851).
Forty electorates recorded a decrease in the number of dwellings approved between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
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Interpreting the data
Time periods stated as 2024-25 refer to the period between the start of July 2024 and the end of June 2025.
Building approvals
The
ABS collects data relating to residential and non-residential building work from a variety of sources including permits collected from local government and contracts authorised by government authorities. A building is considered to be a rigid, fixed, and permanent structure which has a roof and its intended purpose is to house people, plant, machinery, vehicles, goods or livestock.
Building approvals are classified by type of building, type of work, and ownership. This data brief contains data on approvals for residential buildings that are new constructions and are owned by the private sector. Residential buildings are further classified as either:
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A house, which is a dwelling that is not attached in some structural way to another dwelling
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Semi-detached (including row houses and townhouses), which are dwellings with their own entrance and private grounds, and no separate dwelling above or below, but which are attached in some structural way to one or more dwellings
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Apartments (including those attached to a house), which are dwellings that do not have their own private grounds and usually share a common entrance.
For further details see the complete ABS methodology.
Value of approvals
The value of building work approved is derived using the estimated 'value of building work when completed' as reported on building approval documents provided to local councils or other building approval authorities. This generally excludes the value of land, landscaping, and demolition, but includes any site preparation costs.
For buildings classified as houses, this estimate is usually reliable but for other classifications it can differ significantly from the final completed value of the building. Where a building is intended to be used for multiple purposes the ABS endeavours to split the value accordingly, but where that is not possible the value will be assigned to the building's predominant purpose which may lead to multi-purpose apartment developments being overvalued.
The building value data has been included to assist in understanding how the costs of building have changed over time in each electorate and to provide context for the kind of buildings being constructed.
Dashboard
The time series data for average dwelling value in the dashboard has been smoothed using a rolling 6-month average. This reduces the volatility of the monthly data, making trends easier to identify, but means caution must be taken in interpreting small values which may have been averaged across periods with 0 approvals.
Methodology
Population-weighted correspondences
Building approval and value of buildings approved data is available for Statistical Areas Level 2 (SA2s). The ABS defines SA2s as medium-sized general purpose areas designed to represent a community that interacts together socially and economically. SA2s generally have an average population of about 10,000, with a range of 3,000 to 25,000 people. Remote and regional SA2s generally have smaller populations than those in urban areas.
Correspondences can be used to mathematically reassign data from one geographic region to another, including state electoral divisions (SEDs). Standard correspondences have a weighting calculated based on the location of the population.
An SA2 to SED population-weighted correspondence was derived using data from an ABS Customised report provided to the Queensland Government Statistician’s Office. In this Data Brief, building approvals and value of buildings approved data from the ABS have been reassigned using the SA2 to SED correspondence to match the geographic regions of the 93 NSW SEDs as determined in the 2021 redistribution.
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Video briefing
This lunchtime briefing presented by the Research Service outlines how to interpret and navigate the data.
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Download the data
Further reading
Contact us
Members and parliamentary staff can request research by emailing [email protected].
Access Parliamentary Library resources and learn more about us including our service guide on the parliamentary intranet (internal users only).
Media contact: [email protected].
Title: Electorate data: Housing supply estimates (June 2025)
Author: Andrew Greenland, Daniel Montoya
Publication number: Data Brief No. 2025-04
ISSN 2981-8354 (Online)
The NSW Parliamentary Research Service provides impartial research, data and analysis services for members of the NSW Parliament.
© 2025 Except to the extent of the uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior consent from the Senior Manager, NSW Parliamentary Research Service, other than by members of the New South Wales Parliament in the course of their official duties.
Any advice on legislation or legal policy issues contained in this publication is provided for use in parliamentary debate and for related parliamentary purposes. This publication is not professional legal opinion.
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