Australia’s housing and accommodation crisis did not improve in August, with total dwelling approvals falling for a second successive month, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
Australia's national statistical agency said the seasonally-adjusted 6.0% fall in dwelling approvals to 14,744 was the result of falls of 8.1% to 5,408 for private sector dwellings excluding houses and 2.6% for 9,027 for private sector houses.
“The fall in private sector houses in August was driven by the two largest states, Victoria and New South Wales, which were down 8.3% and 6.2%, respectively,” the ABS head of construction statistics Daniel Rossi said in a media release.
In contrast, Queensland rose 2.9% and Western Australia rose 1.7%.
This followed a 10% seasonally adjusted fall in dwelling approvals in July, which was mainly the result of a 25.8% drop in private dwellings excluding houses.
Despite this, total building approvals across Australia rose 8.6% to $17.09 billion as a 3.1% drop in residential building 3.1% to $9.17 billion (US$6.06 billion) was more than offset by a 26.1% leap in the value of non-residential building to $7.92 billion in August.
The fall in residential building approvals was comprised of a 2% drop in new residential building to $8.03 billion and a 9.9% decrease in alterations and additions to $1.14 billion.
Apartments and townhouses were the main contributors to the 8.1% drop in private sector dwellings excluding houses in August.
Apartments approvals fell 33.4% to 2,704, the second lowest result in 12 months, and townhouse approvals dropped 19.1% to 2,424 dwellings, in original terms.
