Building approvals are heading towards recessionary levels, warns the Housing Industry Association, as the number of new homes being built in Canberra dropped for the 11th consecutive month.
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Despite only a minor drop in April, figures are now less than half of what they were a year ago.
Residential building approvals in the ACT fell by 0.7 per cent, in trend terms, in April, according to figures issued by the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday.
Despite the drop, the ACT fared better than the national figure which fell by 1.3 per cent.
HIA ACT executive director Neil Evans said while the ACT was now in a good position compared to other states, greater declines were in store. HIA forecasts a 29 per cent drop in new homes being built for all of this year, and a further drop of 9.8 per cent next year.
Mr Evans said that, nationally, figures could drop to recessionary levels. ''We'll be back into figures seen in the GFC period,'' he said.
