Queensland building approvals dip 0.6% in September, ABS trend shows

The Queensland Government Statistician’s Office’s summary of the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ building approvals data for September 2026, released 2 November, shows the trend estimate for total dwelling units approved in Queensland fell 0.6% during the month to 4,264, even as the national trend rose 1.3%. The state’s annual trend ran the other way, up 10.7% on September 2025.

Why it matters

Queensland’s monthly trend moved against the national direction. The QGSO summary of the ABS release says the trend estimate for private sector house approvals in Queensland rose 0.4% in September to 2,432, while the total dwelling trend, which also counts units and townhouses, fell 0.6% to 4,264. Queensland’s total dwelling approvals accounted for 22.8% of the national total in trend terms, the same share the state held for private sector house approvals specifically.

The approvals pipeline feeds a construction queue the ABS tracks separately. Queensland had 52,567 dwellings under construction in the June quarter, so a softer approvals month in September does not show up in that under-construction count yet, and will not for some time given typical build timelines. Developers reading the September dip alongside that larger queue should not expect an immediate change in how many homes are mid-build, since approvals lead construction activity by months rather than weeks.

The numbers

The value figures moved in the same direction as approval volumes. The trend nominal value of residential building work approved in Queensland fell 1.1% in September to $2,700.4 million, the QGSO summary says, while the national trend value was close to flat, down less than 0.1% to $11,335.4 million. Non-residential approvals fell further: Queensland’s trend value dropped 5.6% in September to $1,298.4 million, against a 1.1% national fall to $8,939.4 million.

Queensland’s annual trend growth in total dwelling approvals, 10.7%, ran marginally ahead of the national annual trend of 10.6%, a 0.1 percentage point gap on the QGSO summary’s own figures. Both the monthly dip and the annual rise are trend estimates, which the ABS calculates to smooth seasonal and short-term swings. The QGSO summary does not publish a Queensland seasonally adjusted or original figure for the month, so there is no non-trend read on September alone. It attributes every figure in both the dwelling and value series to the ABS national release rather than to any Queensland Treasury modelling of its own, and the QGSO branding on the document identifies it as a Queensland Treasury product summarising, not supplementing, the Commonwealth data.

What’s next

The QGSO summary attributes all of these figures to the ABS national release and does not break out which councils or regions drove Queensland’s monthly fall. The next ABS building approvals release, covering October 2026, will show whether the 0.6% dip was a one-month pause inside an annual trend still running above the national rate, or the start of a slower run.

Builders and developers weighing the gap between what is approved each month and what is still under construction can watch that October release alongside the ABS building activity data for a clearer read on whether the softer September approvals trend starts to flow through to commencements.