24743 – Work In Progress

Work In Progress measures how many dwellings are under construction at a point in time: started but not yet finished. It is a stock, not a flow — a count of what stands part-built, rather than of what began or completed in the quarter.

The node is a component of Supply Pipeline Conditions (24740), which in turn sits within the APN Investment Conditions Index™ (24700). It is a national time series, not a geographic one — there is no locality distribution or map at this node.

Because it is a stock, it rises when starts exceed completions and falls when completions exceed starts. It therefore records the pipeline’s accumulated position rather than its current pace.

The input is the Australian Bureau of Statistics dwellings-under-construction series.

The standardised column expresses the stock against its own 2011–2025 comparison window.

The stock of dwellings under construction sits at the highest level in this node's recorded history, at +1.38 standardised. More homes stand part-built in Australia than in any quarter the record contains.

The stock rose by about 4,600 dwellings in the June quarter, from 244,132 in the March quarter as revised, because starts (52,166) again exceeded completions (47,653). Commencements are now above their own average (Commencements (24742), +0.51), so the record reflects a steady flow into the pipeline as well as slower clearing: at the June quarter’s rate of completion the stock represents about 15.7 months of work (Construction Completion Lag (21290)).

This reading describes the size of the part-built stock. It does not, on its own, distinguish a pipeline that is building a great deal from one that is finishing very little, and the two carry different implications. Pipeline Congestion (24744) addresses that question directly.

• The reading of 100.0 is at the ceiling of its scale. This node's position is expressed as a rank against the 168 quarters in which its input is present, and the June 2026 quarter is the highest reading in that history. The top observation in any such ranking receives 100.0 by construction. The figure establishes that this is the node's most elevated quarter on record; it does not measure by how far it exceeds the next. The underlying reading of +1.38 standard deviations carries that magnitude into the index, which the capped position alone does not.
• A stock measure carries no direction on its own. A large volume of dwellings under construction can describe substantial building activity or substantial delay. This node measures the volume; it does not attribute a cause.
• The input is a stock and its siblings are flows. Approvals and commencements count events within a quarter; this counts a position at a point in time. The two respond to different things and should not be read as though on one scale.
• Building activity figures are revised as later survey returns arrive, and recent quarters are the most likely to move.
• Revisions carry through to the parent node: the input enters Supply Pipeline Conditions (24740) through this component, so a revision affects more than one reading.
• The comparison window and the ranking population differ. The standardised reading is measured against 2011–2025. The position is ranked against all 168 quarters in which the input is present, a record reaching back to 1984. That full-coverage basis is the ratified one across the 24700 series; the all-rows basis is retired.
• Signed direction. This component enters the index as it reads: a larger stock of dwellings under construction is a supportive condition for investment. Its signed and intensity positions therefore coincide at 100.0 — one frame carrying that direction, the other measuring distance from the node's own record without regard to it.

The other three components of Supply Pipeline Conditions (24740). Each is independently certified and enters that branch at equal weight.