Australian housing construction is showing strong signs of recovery, with detached house approvals hitting their highest monthly level in two years during September.
According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, detached house approvals increased by 6.1 per cent to 9,890 in September, marking a significant turnaround in the construction sector.
The September quarter saw 28,970 detached house approvals nationally, representing a 4.1 per cent increase from the previous quarter and a 12.9 per cent rise compared to the same period last year.
HIA Economist Maurice Tapang said market conditions have improved significantly.
“It has been a year since the RBA last raised interest rates,” Mr Tapang said.
“Unchanged cash rate settings, supported by strong population growth, low unemployment levels and acute housing shortages, have helped lift consumer sentiment.”
Despite the uptick, there were still significant differences across the country, with Melbourne performing particularly strongly.
“Detached house approvals in Melbourne are double that of approvals in Sydney, despite these two capital cities having comparatively similar population numbers and inflows,” Mr Tapang said.
Western Australia emerged as the standout performer, with detached house approvals surging 49.9 per cent compared to the previous year, while South Australia and Queensland also recorded strong growth.
Multi-unit approvals have also shown improvement, rising 8.5 per cent to 4,950 in September, though challenges remain in this sector.
“Multi-unit approvals have been bumpy and trending at decade-low levels amid challenges with capacity, labour availability and materials costs,” Mr Tapang said.
“The volume of apartment construction needs to double current approvals numbers in order to achieve the Australian Government’s target of 1.2 million homes over five years.”
