The average cost of building new housing increased every year for the past 18 years between 2007/08 and 2024/25 as did the cost per square metre (SQM) while the average floor area of detached houses, apartments and townhouses have fluctuated.
Detached houses:
Per SQM new houses are most expensive in NSW ($2,396 per SQM), Tasmania ($2,538 per SQM) and in the Top End ($2,302 per SQM).
On average, the cost of building a new detached house in NSW rose from $276,562 in 2007/08 to $565,749 in 2024/25 an increase of nearly $300,000 ($289,187).
Apartments:
In NSW it takes more than three years to construct a new apartment building from approval to completion.
The average cost per SQM of new apartment projects in 2024.25 was $4,535.03 compared to $2,402.62 in 2007/08. In today's inflationary environment today's cost per SQM has almost certainly nearly $5,000 if not more.
Consistent with the acceleration of inflation in the construction sector since COVID, the highest year on year increase in 18 years occurred in the 12 months to 2022/23 and 2023/24 when the average cost per SQM jumped from $3,606.57 to 4,319.03.