Overall softwood imports 4407.10 saw a continuation of the trend which commenced late 2022 of easing volumes. Volumes for the year-end June 2023 were 685,532m3 down -25.8% with a slight upti…

As massive stimulus begins to take hold in the US, the Australian dollar has tracked sharply lower. Mid-August, the Aussie was down to around USD0.635, having crashed over the last month or so…

Typically, a rise in unemployment of 0.2%, resulting in 35,590 people being added to those looking for work, would be worrying times. Instead, with an unemployment rate of just 3.7%, small in…

The value of housing loans in Australia was down 18.2% year-ended June but has improved from -30.7% for the year-ending January, suggesting the slump in total loan values is beginning to turn…

Australian dwelling approvals continued to decline and were down 7.7% in June after May saw a small moment of winter brightness, when approvals jumped 20.5%. While all states saw approvals d…

Unlike much of the developed world, Australia’s house building system has yet to mature to the point where it builds housing in factories. In countries such as Japan, Sweden and Germany, pref…

Recent research conducted for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute (AHURI) recognises Australia’s building system is wasteful of many of its best resources. The same resea…

It is an uncomfortable reality that Australia’s market has failed to supply the required volume of housing, over a relatively long period. At its simplest, the market appears to have failed,…