The bi-annual Housing Scorecard report recently released by the Housing Industry Association (HIA), the voice of Australia’s residential building industry, indicates a repeat performance by Western Australia in topping the rankings.

The HIA Housing Scorecard report benchmarks the contemporary performance of 14 key indicators of activity in residential building against long term averages in each state and territory. This analysis is aggregated in a scoring system to generate a league table ranking the relative strength/weakness of residential building conditions in each jurisdiction.

According to HIA Chief Economist Harley Dale, Western Australia has once again topped the rankings, remaining the strongest residential building market in the country, ahead of New South Wales. However, NSW’s turnaround is the highlight of the Housing Scorecard, with the state ranked the second strongest residential building market in the country, up from number five only six months earlier.

The top two states are followed by the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and the Northern Territory clustered closely together in the middle of the list. South Australia and Queensland lag behind these states with Tasmania remaining the weakest residential building market in the country.

The big story of the ranking is the recovery in NSW, which can be attributed to the surge in activity in the multi-unit sector; however, the detached home market in NSW ranks among the strongest in the country. While the renovations market remains a soft spot for NSW, there are signs of improvement in this segment.