Canberra home to fastest growing suburbs
Canberra is home to Australia's fastest growing suburbs, with inner Melbourne and outer Perth hot on the national capital's heels.
The Canberra suburbs of Crace, Bonner and Casey have recorded the fastest growing populations in the country and some of the highest value building approvals, a 2014 Housing Industry Association survey shows.
"Despite much of the gloom related to the federal government's fiscal situation, the ACT's residential construction industry is forging ahead with its long-term plans," HIA economist Shane Garrett said.
But while populations in the three Canberra suburbs grew by more than 40 per cent over the past year, they were outgunned in terms of spending on new housing developments in inner Melbourne and outer Perth.
The 2014 Population & Residential Building Hotspots report shows $385 million was approved to be spent in Melbourne in 2012/13 and $250 million was approved to be spent in Baldivis, a semi-rural suburb on Perth's southern outskirts.
The survey revealed population growth in Melbourne was 22 per cent and 15 per cent in Baldivis.
But a population boom in Canberra pushed Crace's growth rate to a massive 58 per cent, followed by Bonner at 43 per cent and Casey at 41 per cent.
Mr Garret said Victoria's home builders had persevered with providing new dwellings amid solid population growth and a long overdue recovery in WA's new dwelling construction market was behind the state's high national ranking.
He added that further strong growth during 2013/14 meant the nation could look forward to new growth hotspots in the year ahead.
Overall new dwelling commencements in Australia rose to 162,000 during 2012/13, an increase of 11.7 per cent.
"The report showed that the expansion in activity has been quite broad based," Mr Garrett said.
It comes as figures released on Monday showed Australia's construction industry has grown for the first time this year.
The Australian Industry Group released a report showing housing construction and a pick up in engineering construction helped the industry grow for the first time in six months.
The Ai Group/Housing Industry Association Performance of Construction Index rose 5.1 points to 51.8 in June, above the 50 level separating expansion from contraction.
