Detached House Approvals Hit 5 Year High

Detached house approvals hit a five year high during April, said the Housing Industry Association.

HIA Senior Economist Shane Garrett said, "During April, detached house approvals rose by 4.7 per cent in seasonally-adjusted terms to reach 10,264.""However, a weaker month for the multi-unit segment of the market actually drove new dwelling approvals lower during April."During April 2015, total new dwelling approvals fell by 4.4 per cent to 18,715 in seasonally-adjusted terms. The reduction was driven by the multi-unit segment, with 13.6 per cent reduction occurring during the month. Detached house approvals saw growth of 4.7 per cent during March. A total of 214,331 approvals were recorded in the year to April, the highest twelve monthly total on record.

"Strengthening activity in detached house building is crucial to broadening the base of the new home building recovery which has been largely contained to the multi-unit market to date. It is important that policy setting allows the expansion in detached house building to deliver on its full economic potential," Mr Garrett said.

During April 2015, seasonally-adjusted new dwelling approvals only increased in Tasmania. Approvals declined in all the other states, with the largest monthly reductions occurring in NSW, Queensland and in South Australia. New dwelling approvals also declined in Western Australia and in Victoria. In trend terms, new dwelling approvals increased in the ACT during April with a decline of 6.2 per cent in the Northern Territory.