Monthly building approvals in the Territory collapsed by 81.6 per cent to only 19 approved in April, new figures from the Department of Treasury and Finance show.

Year-on-year building approvals in the jurisdiction likewise fell 37.1 per cent to 536.

The decrease in the Territory’s monthly approvals rate is the second-lowest of all jurisdictions, with the ACT registering a decline of 86.3 per cent, while an increase of 29.1 per cent was recorded in South Australia.

Data show that the decrease reflects a downward trend in house approvals from 42 the previous month to only 19 in April. Alterations, additions and conversions approvals dropped from 61 to none. On the whole, residential building approvals suffered a decrease of 15.2 per cent.

From January to April this year, total residential building approvals in the Territory crashed by 71.2 per cent. This principally mirrors a decrease in house approvals going down from 64 to 19. Nationally, residential building approvals declined by 34.2 per cent.

The Monthly Building Approvals (BAPS) collection gathers data relating to residential and non-residential building work above certain value limits approved within the reference month. The data is an important leading economic indicator of future building activity.

Building Approval statistics are used widely by public and private sector organisations to monitor economic activity, employment and investment.

Year-on-year figures ending April 2022, residential building approvals in the Territory also declined by 37.1 per cent to only 536, compared with an increase of 0.6 per cent nationally to 208,889.

Annually, the Territory reported the weakest result among all jurisdictions ranging from a decline of 18.6 per cent in Western Australia to an increase of 6.2 per cent in the Australian Capital Territory.

The period also saw house approvals decrease by 45.4 per cent, unit and townhouse approvals go down by 35.1 per cent and alterations, additions and conversions approvals go up by 204.3 per cent.

Year-on-year to April 2022, the total value of residential building approvals in the Territory decreased by 28.1 per cent to $304.1 million, against an increase of 11.5 per cent to $88.5 billion nationally.

The Territory’s value of non-residential approvals for April declined by 52.5 per cent to $8.4 million. It reflects a 23.5 per cent cut in private non-residential building approvals and an 83.4 per cent fall in public non-residential building approvals.

On the whole, the country’s value of non-residential building approvals went down by 34.9 per cent to $3.8 billion.