Australian dwelling approvals up 5.1 pct in September-Xinhua - 新华网

CANBERRA, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The total number of dwellings approved in Australia rose 5.1 percent in September to 17,948, driven by higher apartment approvals, official data showed on Monday.

Approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses increased 16.6 percent to 6,579 in September, following a 21.7 percent fall in August, but remained 20.5 percent lower than a year earlier, Daniel Rossi, head of construction statistics of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), said in a statement.

Apartment approvals rose 25.6 percent to 4,129 in original, unadjusted terms, with the state of New South Wales recording the biggest increase, from 901 in August to 1,995 in September, according to the bureau.

However, private sector house approvals fell 5.3 percent to 10,432, marking their largest monthly decline since August 2025. Despite the drop, approvals remained 9.6 percent higher than a year earlier and exceeded 10,000 private sector houses approved for the ninth consecutive month, the ABS said.

Townhouse approvals increased 8.3 percent to 2,792 in original terms in September, following a 19.4 percent fall in August, it said.

The value of total building approvals rose 13 percent to 19.02 billion Australian dollars (about 13.37 billion U.S. dollars), driven by a 45.9 percent increase in non-residential building approvals to 7.96 billion Australian dollars, statistics showed.

By contrast, the value of residential building approvals fell 2.8 percent to 11.06 billion Australian dollars, the agency said. (1 Australian dollar equals 0.7 U.S. dollar) ■