Victorians spent nearly $38 billion on building work in 2019 which pushes the dollar value to the second-highest total since records began. Despite this, the value of all permits reported last year was 3.35% lower than the record high set in 2018.

Housing has fueled the states building activity, accounting for 82% of all permits and 60% of the reported dollar value for the calendar year. However, the construction of houses and apartments fell sharply with the number of permits sinking 11.5% and the overall costs of works falling 8%.

The commercial building sector also saw strong investment with the value of work surging 21.3% to $6.44 billion which is a record high despite a 5% fall in the number of reported permits.

Across the state, building activity slowed in nearly all regions except North Central which reported a 2% increase in permits. Alongside this, the Gippsland and North West regions recorded a modest increase in costs of work.

Metropolitan Melbourne had 11 municipalities report building works of at least $1 billion with the cities of Melbourne, Monash and Wyndham ranking as the top three.

Regional Victoria has mixed results with Greater Geelong reporting around $1.67 billion of works, Ballarat $644 million and Greater Bendigo $468 million.

In a key finding for 2019, regional Victoria outperformed metropolitan Melbourne by 5.37% in terms of annual growth in the value of building permits. Regional Victoria grew by 1.03%, while metropolitan Melbourne contracted by 4.34%.

Other key findings of the building permit data revealed that the total value of permits in the hospital and healthcare category fell from $1.15 billion in 2018  to $776.3 million in 2019 and the value of retail building work declined slightly over the same period.

A five-year breakdown of all findings can be accessed at the Victorian Building Authority website.