Commercial buildings approvals finished strongly in 2019, with the value of commercial building work jumping nationally by 30.9% in December, according to Master Builders Australia (MBA) chief economist, Shane Garrett.

“The strong result for December means that the volume of commercial building work on the ground is set to remain elevated over the coming months,” Mr Garrett said on Monday 3 February.

He said the figures also indicate new dwelling approvals “eased slightly during December”, and that the “pipeline of new home building work is still quite a bit lower than it was a year ago”.

“Leading indicators suggest that a home building recovery is not too far off, however. Lending to housing investors is expanding again and the First Home Buyer part of the market has a lot of wind behind its sails. House prices are also gathering momentum across most major cities.”

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