Building Approval Reports
Townsville City Council provides information about local building approvals in a number of ways:
- Visit Townsville Dashboards to view the information in an interactive visual format (open Planning and Building), or refer to the Help with using the building approvals dashboard information sheet. (PDF)
- Compare the building approval numbers and valuations with other economic and demographic information on the Townsville Community Profiles site (based on Australian Bureau of Statistics data).
The building approval information provides an overview of building and economic activity around the city, and includes the number of approvals issued each month along with the estimated value of those approvals.
The information on Townsville Dashboards is categorised as:
- new dwellings - single detached new dwellings
- new units - duplex and multiple dwelling approvals, providing the number of approvals and the number of new residential units
- commercial - includes all Class 3 to 9 and all subsets as described under the Building Code of Australia
- pools and spas
- other residential - Class 1 and 10 alterations, additions and minor structures e.g. patio, garden shed, additions to existing dwellings.
The information is updated daily on the dashboard.
The information provided is governed by the provisions of the Information Privacy Act 2009, and the Planning Act 2016.
Cautions in using the data
State government development information is not required to be given to council. Therefore, the building approval data only includes a small proportion of state government work, and this should be taken into consideration when analysing the information (i.e. the estimated value of works may not include developments such as works to schools, hospitals or defence).
The estimated value of works needs to be used with some caution. As this is provided at the planning stage of works, this may not accurately reflect the final cost of works.
Approvals for the most recent weeks also needs to be used with some caution. While private building certifiers are required to provide the information to council within five business days of the decision notice being issued, this does not always occur. Data is regularly reviewed for accuracy; however, minor representation errors may still occur.
ABS building approvals data
The data produced is also regularly provided to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The ABS compiles statistics of both private and public sector works and produces publications via AusStats. Please note that due to the differences in scope and reporting parameters, the details of approved building works will vary from Council’s data.
Visit the Townsville Community Profiles for building approval information sourced from ABS data.
More information
Information on building approvals from 2009 is published on Townsville Dashboards.
Download our Help with using the building approvals dashboard information sheet (PDF) for more information.
Dataset definitions are included in the Building Approval Information: Building certification lodgements in the Townsville local government area (PDF) information sheet.
