Aged care and religious buildings are two surprising areas of strength in the construction industry, according to the latest ACI Construction Monitor report.
ACI Economist Geordan Murray said non-residential construction showed clear divisions along both state and industry lines.
“There is a strong pipeline of work evident for the aged care sector and also for religion buildings, while the short term outlook is reasonably healthy for the sectors of agricultural and aquaculture buildings, health, entertainment and recreation, and short term accommodation,” Mr Murray said.
“In terms of geography, the latest state rankings appear to have adopted the social order of an old world
manor house, with a clear demarcation between upstairs and downstairs.”
“New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and the Northern Territory are enjoying the prosperity upstairs, while
Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory are living rough
downstairs.”
Geordan Murray[/caption]Mr Murray said that after a number of weak years Tasmania had emerged at the top of the
top of the construction league table in the March 2015 quarter, alongside Victoria, and the NT and narrowly ahead of NSW.
"This is a great result for Tasmania, where non-residential construction activity is recovering from a very low base, but time will tell whether this is just a flash in the pan or the beginning of a sustained recovery,” Mr Murray said.
“The ongoing strength of the two largest states is the most economically significant development.""While the outright rankings of NSW and Victoria are arguably skewed by the volatility of activity in the minnow jurisdictions, non-residential construction conditions in both states improved when compared to the winter 2015 Construction Monitor.”
Both states had a strengthening non-residential construction outlook.
Construction work associated with the mining sector continued to ease back, taking a
toll on WA’s ranking which slipped to last place.
"While there is still a large amount of construction activity occurring in WA at present, it is well down on the levels the state had become accustomed to over the last few years,” Mr Murray said.