The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released its monthly building approvals data for April 2025 for detached houses and multi-units covering all states and territories.
HIA Senior Economist Maurice Tapang said there were 9490 detached homes approved in the month of April 2025, up by 3.3% compared to the previous month.
“Detached house approvals have been picking up modestly in recent months, while multi-unit approvals have been volatile and at very low levels,” Mr Tapang said.
“In the three months to April 2025, there were 28,030 detached homes approved for construction, which is 3.0% higher compared to the same period in the previous year.
“The rise in the volume of detached house approvals is consistent with other leading indicators of activity, with new home sales in the month of April increasing strongly.
“This increased volume of house approvals also came before the second interest rate cut in May this year, which indicates other strong demand factors are also driving growth in approvals.”
Mr Tapang said Australia’s unemployment rate remains at historically low levels, while real wages have been increasing.
“Home buyers appear to be increasingly returning to market, assisted by expectations of interest rate cuts,” he said.
“Multi-unit approvals fell by 18.9% in the month of April to 5140, leaving the total number of units approved in the last 12 months to just under 70,000 still sitting at just under half those levels a decade ago.
“You cannot live in an approval, and this is most certainly true for multi-unit approvals. These projects need to be sold on in order to get to commencement and be delivered to market.
“Unfortunately, punitive taxes on foreign capital and its consequential withdrawal from the market have kept this volume down.
“In order to see a sufficient rise in home building and rebalance housing supply and demand, governments of all need to help lower the cost of a new home and stop taxing those who build them.”
Mr Tapang said detached house approvals in the three months to April 2025, in seasonally adjusted terms, increased in South Australia the most, up by 17.3% compared to the previous year.
“This was followed by Western Australia (+14.3%), Queensland (+11.1%), Tasmania (+4.5%) and New South Wales (+1.3%),” he said.
“In original terms, detached approvals in the
Australian Capital Territory rose by 33.6% over the same period, and in Northern Territory up by 21% off very low levels. Victoria was the only jurisdiction to record a decline, down by 10.9% compared to the previous year.”
