FWPA's latest statistics & economics monthly insights [AU]Friday 11 Sep 2026
From market movements and trade flows to industry benchmarking and economic insights, this update is designed to turn numbers into knowledge - giving you the tools to make informed, confident decisions. 1) Australia’s Residential Pipeline: Why More Approvals No Longer Mean More Homes Australia’s residential construction pipeline flows through five key stages: approval, waiting-to-start, commencement, construction, and completion. Looking and observing across these stages (stock and flow) reveals an important transition in how the housing market is functioning. Compared with the 2016–2018 construction boom, the post-COVID period has generated a large pipeline of projects, but that pipeline is moving more slowly through to completion. The issue is therefore becoming less about the number of projects entering the system. It is more about the capacity of the industry to deliver them. More >> 2) Construction activity grows as forestry and timber manufacturing remain steady The latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) National Accounts data shows an increasingly divergent picture across the forestry, manufacturing and construction sectors. While construction continues to expand, forestry and the downstream manufacturing sector remain relatively stagnant, highlighting the changing dynamics of Australia’s building-material supply chain. More >> 3) Prefabrication could create new growth opportunities for timber across Australia’s low & mid-rise housing market Australia’s housing challenge is increasingly becoming a question not only of how many homes are built, but how they are built. A new report in July 2026 of ‘Manufacturing Homes: A National Strategy for Solving Australia’s Housing Crisis’, argues that prefabrication and Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) could provide a pathway to lift construction productivity, expand domestic manufacturing and increase the use of Australian building products. More >> 4) Australia’s main wood products imports increased in 2025-26 Whether measured by value or by volume, Australia’s main wood products imports increased significantly in 2025-26, a year when demand was unremarkable. The value of Australia’s wood product imports lifted 10.8% in 2025-26, with imports totalling $1.941 billion. The $189 million increase, measured free-on-board, was driven by increased import values for almost all products. More >> Source & image credit: FWPA | ||
Copyright 2004-2026 © Innovatek Ltd. All rights reserved. |
