Approved dwellings rise on the back of apartments
Smaller homes like units and town houses driving a lift in the number of approved buildings across the country.
UNITS and town houses are driving a surge in homebuilding, according to the latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The total number of dwellings approved rose 29.7 per cent in February to 19,022.
“The rise in total dwellings approved was driven by a 101.2 per cent rise in private dwellings excluding houses,” Daniel Rossi, ABS head of construction statistics, said.
“This follows a 25 per cent fall in private dwellings excluding houses in January and a 29.7 per cent fall in December.
“There have been a total of 195,434 dwellings approved, in original terms, over the past 12 months.
“This is a nine per cent increase on the 12 months prior to that.”
The value of total buildings approved rose 14.4 per cent in February to $20.43 billion, after a 7.8 per cent rise last month.
Residential buildings drove the overall rise, up 30.8 per cent to $12.50 billion to reach a new record high.
The result was comprised of a 35.9 per cent rise in new residential buildings to $11.21 billion and a 1.2 per cent fall in alterations and additions to $1.29 billion.
The value of non-residential buildings fell 4.4 per cent to $7.93 billion, after a 19.5 per cent rise in January.
