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New home approvals in Australia reach highest level on record

Approvals for new homes totalled 18,245 in seasonally adjusted terms during November 2014, almost 3% higher than the previous record which was set in August 1994.

Overall approvals in November rose by 7.6% on the previous month and were 10.1% higher than 12 months earlier.

A breakdown of the figures show that seasonally adjusted new dwelling approvals increased most strongly in Victoria at 19.7%, followed by Tasmania at 8.2. They were up 5.7% in Queensland and 1.2% in Western Australia.

A fall of 1.4% in new home approvals was recorded in New South Wales, while approvals were down 16.3% in South Australia.

In trend terms, new dwelling approvals increased in the ACT by 3.3% and in the Northern Territory by 2.9%.

The Housing Industry Association, the voice of Australia’s residential building industry, pointed out that growth has been concentrated in the multi-unit segment of new home building, which rose by 18% in November year on year. Detached house approvals saw growth of 3.6% over the same period.

‘Residential construction was the economy’s good news story during 2014, and today’s figures indicate that we can look forward to another positive year for the industry,’ said HIA senior economist, Shane Garrett.

‘The fact that approvals hit an all-time high during November augers very well for the pipeline of residential construction work in 2015. With weaknesses in several areas of the Australian economy, new home building has come to life at an opportune time,’ he explained.

‘Residential construction is now a central pillar of support for domestic demand in Australia. It is important that policy reform continues in the areas of planning, land supply and removing the taxation burden on new home building. This will form an important part of achieving the necessary rebalancing of the economy,’ he added.

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