Builders had $84.7bn of residential work yet to be done at the end of June 2026, 24.2% more than a year earlier and more than double the figure of June 2019. It has reached a new high in each of the last eight quarters. Against the $117.5bn of residential work done over the past year, that is 8.7 months of current output in hand, level with March 2026 as the highest since the series began in 1984. The dollar figures carry a large price effect: since June 2019 the value of residential work done has risen 45.8%, but its volume only 2.1%.
Values are in current prices, as the ABS publishes them; work yet to be done has no published volume measure.
What the measure is
Each quarter the ABS Building Activity survey records, for every residential building job under way, the value of the work still to be done: the job’s expected value at completion less the work done so far. Summed across Australia, it is the dollar value of homes and alterations approved and started but not yet finished. Because it rests on each job’s expected completion value, it rises with building costs as well as with the amount of work.
The same survey records the value of work done in each quarter, both in current prices and as a chain volume measure that removes price change. Dividing the work yet to be done by the past year’s work done gives the months it would take to clear at the current rate of output. Because both are in current prices, much, though not all, of the price effect cancels in that ratio: the two are priced at different times.
The value of work yet to be done
Value of residential building work yet to be done, Australia, March quarter 2011 to June quarter 2026
APN chart based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Building Activity, Australia, June quarter 2026, Table 50 (A83801900W). Value of residential building work yet to be done at the end of each quarter, original, current prices, all sectors, $ billion.
Work yet to be done stood at $40.0bn in June 2019 and $84.7bn in June 2026. It has set a new high in every quarter since September 2024. Over the year to June 2026 it rose 24.2%, while work done rose 11.4% in current prices and 8.0% in volume.
Months of output in hand
Residential work yet to be done as months of current output, Australia, June quarter 1985 to June quarter 2026
APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Building Activity, Australia, June quarter 2026, Tables 40 and 50 (A83801899X, A83801900W). Residential work yet to be done divided by residential work done over the latest four quarters, times 12. Original, current prices, all sectors.
| June 2019 | June 2025 | June 2026 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Residential work yet to be done, end of June quarter | $40.0bn | $68.2bn | $84.7bn |
| Residential work done, year to June, current prices | $80.6bn | $105.4bn | $117.5bn |
| Residential work done, year to June, chain volume | $106.8bn | $101.0bn | $109.1bn |
| Months of current output in hand | 6.0 | 7.8 | 8.7 |
APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Building Activity, Australia, June quarter 2026, Tables 3, 40 and 50 (A83778571C, A83801899X, A83801900W). Original, all sectors.
Before 2011, work in hand ranged between 2.8 and 6.0 months of output; from 2011 to 2019 between 5.2 and 7.0. It reached 8.6 months in September 2022, eased, and has risen or held in each of the six quarters since December 2024, to 8.7 months in June 2026, level with March. The dwelling count tells a similar story: the number of dwellings under construction is the largest since the series began, as set out in From Approval to Completion: Australia’s Dwelling Pipeline Stage by Stage, and the months it would take to complete them at the latest pace of completions are covered in Months of Pipeline.
Prices and volume
Residential work done, four quarters to date: current prices and volume, year to June 2019 = 100
APN calculation based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data: Building Activity, Australia, June quarter 2026, Tables 3 and 40 (A83778571C, A83801899X). Residential work done over four quarters, original, all sectors, indexed to the year to June 2019. The chain volume measure removes price change.
Measured in current prices, residential work done over the year to June 2026 was 45.8% higher than in the year to June 2019. Measured in volume, it was 2.1% higher, and still just below its peak in the year to December 2018. Almost all of the rise in the value of output over those seven years was price. The ABS publishes no volume measure of work yet to be done, so its 111.6% rise since June 2019 cannot be split the same way; the months-of-output ratio, which compares two current-price figures, is the steadier guide.
The reading
New Housing Supply Forecasts (21520) combines dwellings under construction (+1.3775σ), the value of residential work yet to be done (+2.8154σ) and the volume of residential work done, seasonally adjusted (+1.5400σ), weighted one quarter, one quarter and one half. At +1.8182σ for the June quarter 2026 it is the highest of its 168 quarters, a position of 100.0. The work-yet-to-be-done component is in current prices, so part of its distance above average reflects building costs.
What this does not show
Work yet to be done counts only jobs already started; approved projects that have not begun are not in it. Its value depends on contract prices, which differ across projects and over time. The months-of-output ratio assumes the latest year’s pace of work continues and ignores work that has not yet started. The figures cover new homes and alterations together, across all sectors, and say nothing about where the work is or how many homes it will produce.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics (Reference period: June quarter 2026) Building Activity, Australia [https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/building-and-construction/building-activity-australia/jun-2026], ABS Website, accessed 7 October 2026.
ABS material is used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. Calculations, standardisations and index readings are APN’s and are not attributable to the ABS.
Findings are presented on the basis of data and evidence alone.
