INSIGHT · DEVELOPMENT & REPORTING

Dwelling completions by state,
and the pace the Accord target implies.

ABS Building Activity counts 47,168 dwellings completed in Australia in the June quarter 2026, seasonally adjusted (Building Activity, Australia, June 2026, released 7 October 2026), and 180,500 on the original series over the 12 months to the June quarter 2026 (our sum). Victoria completed 56,243 and New South Wales 49,545 in those 12 months. Against the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes in five years from 1 July 2024, the first 8 of 20 quarters hold 355,817, leaving about 70,349 a quarter to find against 44,477 so far (our calculation).

Analysed 27 October 2026 · ABS Building Activity, Australia, June 2026, released 7 October 2026: release page and Tables 37, 38 and 39 · ABS Building Activity methodology, June 2026 · Treasury, Delivering the National Housing Accord (no date shown) · National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, Quarterly Report - August 2026 (published 21 August 2026) · all pages and files read 27 October 2026.

Key takeaways

• 47,168 completions in the quarter, seasonally adjusted: The ABS reports total dwellings completed in Australia rose 5.8% to 47,168 in the June quarter 2026, seasonally adjusted. On the original series 47,653 were completed, 15.8% more than a year earlier.
• 180,500 over 12 months: Summing four original quarters gives 180,500 dwellings completed in the 12 months to the June quarter 2026, a change of +2.8% on the previous 12 months (our calculation). Houses were 60.4% of them.
• The states build different things: Over the same 12 months houses were 89.0% of completions in Western Australia and 71.7% in South Australia, but 42.3% in New South Wales and 19.8% in the ACT (our calculation, original series).
• About 70,349 a quarter needed, 44,477 achieved: Our calculation: 1.2 million less the 355,817 completed in the first 8 Accord quarters (seasonally adjusted) leaves 844,183 for the remaining 12, about 70,349 a quarter, 1.58 times the average so far. Arithmetic, not a forecast.
• We would store the series type with every count: A system-design recommendation: a completions figure in a board pack or feasibility carries the ABS table, series ID, series type (original, seasonally adjusted or trend), the quarter and the release, and says whether it is a published figure or a sum.

01

Completions by state,
the quarter and 12 months.

Total dwellings completed, all sectors, all types of building and work, from Building Activity, Australia, June 2026, released 7 October 2026. The quarter columns are as published by the ABS. The 12-month total sums four original quarters and its change compares the 12 months to the June quarter 2026 with the 12 months to the June quarter 2025 (both our calculation).

The ABS cautions that seasonally adjusted series for Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the ACT should be used with care, because small numbers and volatile data make the seasonal pattern hard to estimate. It also states that adjusted components may not add to adjusted totals and that figures should not be derived from them; the 12-month totals are summed from the original series. The latest quarter is preliminary and is revised in the next release.

02

Houses and other residential,
state by state.

New houses and new other residential dwellings completed over the 12 months to the June quarter 2026, original series, summed from four quarters of ABS Table 39 (our calculation). The NHSAC column is the share of each state's Accord target the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC) reports as built, to the March quarter 2026.

New houses and new other residential do not add to total completions: the ABS also counts a small series it labels dwellings excluding new residential (621 nationally over the 12 months). The NHSAC column is from its Quarterly Report - August 2026, published 21 August 2026, which states the state and territory targets are calculated using population shares at the time the Accord was agreed. It ends one quarter earlier than the ABS columns.

03

What the ABS counts
as a completion.

The definitions are from the ABS Building Activity methodology.

• Completed: A building is completed when building activity has progressed to the stage where the building can fulfil its intended function.
• A job completes all at once: A residential job may create one or more dwellings. All dwelling units created by a job are counted as completed when the job is completed, so a 200-apartment building adds 200 completions in a single quarter.
• Houses and other residential: A house is a detached building used for long-term residential purposes with one dwelling unit, including kit and transportable homes. Other residential covers semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses, flats, units and apartments.
• Scope: Approved residential building jobs valued at $10,000 or more, public and private sector. The survey is selected from jobs notified to Building Approvals: high-value jobs are fully enumerated, mid-range jobs are sampled and low-value jobs are modelled.
• Three series types: Original is the survey estimate. Seasonally adjusted removes estimated seasonal and calendar effects. Trend smooths the seasonally adjusted series. In the ACT the three gave 617, 667 and 957 for the June quarter 2026.

04

The Accord target
and how it is measured.

Treasury's Accord page records that National Cabinet agreed on 16 August 2023 to a national target to build 1.2 million new well-located homes over 5 years, from 1 July 2024; the same page also describes the period as 5 years from mid-2024. The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council (NHSAC) reports progress in gross dwelling units completed, seasonally adjusted, from the ABS Building Activity series.

• The latest NHSAC count: NHSAC's Quarterly Report - August 2026, published 21 August 2026, counts 308,000 new homes completed since the Accord started, to the March quarter 2026, covering 7 of the 20 quarters. As read on 27 October 2026, no later NHSAC report was listed on its home page.
• The latest NHSAC estimate: The same report estimates the 1.2 million target will be reached in the December quarter 2030. That date is NHSAC's estimate, attributed to it; June 2029 is the end of the Accord period.
• Gross, not net: Completions count new dwellings built, not the change in the dwelling stock after demolitions. Our page on the moving Accord target date sets out NHSAC's statement that net figures should not be compared with the target.

05

The pace required
and the pace so far.

Our calculation from ABS Table 37, total dwelling units completed, all sectors, seasonally adjusted (series A83801545R), summed from the September quarter 2024 to the June quarter 2026, in Building Activity, Australia, June 2026, released 7 October 2026. It is arithmetic on published figures, not a forecast and not an NHSAC estimate.

• The highest quarter so far: The highest seasonally adjusted quarter in the Accord period is 47,168, in the June quarter 2026.
• Earlier quarters move: The first seven quarters sum to 308,649 in this release, against NHSAC's 308,000 from earlier data. Each release can revise earlier quarters, so a stored total needs the release it came from.
• Original gives almost the same total: The same quarters on the original series sum to 356,010 (our calculation). The measure NHSAC describes is seasonally adjusted.

What we would put in a system

Where agents help is narrow. A reporting agent can read Tables 37 to 39 when a release lands, update the state figures and sums with their series IDs, flag revisions to earlier quarters, and draft the paragraph, and a person confirms it. No agent forecasts completions or says whether a target will be met.

• Reporting: Board and lender reporting with each figure's source and date.
• The dwelling pipeline by state: Approvals, commencements, under construction and completions in one quarter.
• The Accord target date has moved: NHSAC's three published estimates of when 1.2 million is reached.
• South Australian dwelling approvals: The monthly ABS approvals count for South Australia.

Questions worth asking
of your own reports

For a developer: does your feasibility cite completions as a quarter or as a sum, and on which series?

Australia's June quarter 2026 was 47,653 original and 47,168 seasonally adjusted. A 12-month figure is a sum of four quarters and should say which series it summed.

For a builder working across states: are you comparing like with like?

Houses were 89.0% of Western Australia's completions over the 12 months to the June quarter 2026 and 42.3% of New South Wales' (our calculation). A state total mixes very different building types.

For a construction group citing the Accord: does each figure say whether it is NHSAC's, the ABS's or your own arithmetic?

The 308,000 count and the December quarter 2030 estimate are NHSAC's; the 355,817 sum and the 70,349 a quarter are our calculation from ABS figures.

Questions people ask
about dwelling completions

How many dwellings were completed in Australia in 2026?

ABS Building Activity reports 47,168 dwellings completed in the June quarter 2026, seasonally adjusted, and 47,653 original (Building Activity, Australia, June 2026, released 7 October 2026). Over the 12 months to the June quarter 2026, 180,500 were completed on the original series (our sum of four quarters).

What are dwelling completions by state?

In the 12 months to the June quarter 2026, original series (our sums): Victoria 56,243, New South Wales 49,545, Queensland 34,627, Western Australia 19,569, South Australia 13,647, the ACT 3,800, Tasmania 2,349 and the Northern Territory 721.

How is the National Housing Accord tracking?

NHSAC's Quarterly Report - August 2026 counts 308,000 completions to the March quarter 2026 and estimates the 1.2 million target will be reached in the December quarter 2030. Adding the ABS June quarter 2026 gives 355,817 over 8 of 20 quarters (our sum, seasonally adjusted).

How many homes a quarter are needed to meet the Housing Accord target?

An even pace is 60,000 a quarter. After 8 quarters with 355,817 completions, the remaining 12 quarters to June 2029 would need about 70,349 a quarter, against 44,477 so far (our calculation from ABS seasonally adjusted figures; not a forecast).

Where does the ABS publish dwelling completions data?

In Building Activity, Australia, each quarter: Table 37 for Australia, Table 38 for states with original, seasonally adjusted and trend totals and houses, and Table 39 for states in original terms by type of building.

What this analysis
does and does not show.

What to watch next

The ABS release page lists the next two Building Activity releases. NHSAC states that expected completion dates will be revised in future quarterly reports; the pages read give no date for the next one.

• 13 January 2027: Building Activity, Australia, September 2026
• 7 April 2027: Building Activity, Australia, December 2026

Bring us one report
that cites completions.

Send us a feasibility, board pack or submission that cites dwelling completions or the Accord. We will show you which ABS series and release each figure matches, which are sums or estimates, and which fields your records would need for the next release to update them.

General information about published ABS statistics and government reports, as read on 27 October 2026. Not financial, investment or planning advice, and no forecast.

Send us the report · Reporting

Sources

Suggested citation: ABS, Building Activity, Australia, June 2026 (released 7 October 2026), Tables 37 to 39, as read 27 October 2026. Derived figures: 12-month totals, changes, shares, the Accord-period sum and the required and actual pace are our calculation, reproduced by compute.py in the source folder.

• ABS - Building Activity, Australia, June 2026: Released 7 October 2026 · read 27 October 2026 · Official statistics release
• ABS - Building Activity Tables 37, 38 and 39, Number of Dwelling Unit Completions: Released 7 October 2026 · read 27 October 2026, downloaded as XLSX · Official time series workbooks
• ABS - Building Activity, Australia methodology, June 2026: Released 7 October 2026 · read 27 October 2026 · Official methodology
• Treasury - Delivering the National Housing Accord: No date shown · read 27 October 2026 · Commonwealth department page
• National Housing Supply and Affordability Council - Quarterly Report - August 2026: Published 21 August 2026 · read 27 October 2026 · Statutory advisory council report