House approvals rise to 20 year high in October

Building approvals for private sector houses rose for the fourth consecutive month in October and were at the highest recorded level since February 2000, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.  

Building approvals saw a surprise 3.8 per cent rise in October, with many forecasting a contraction following a huge September spike.

Westpac had forecast approvals would slip back three per cent. 

Daniel Rossi, director of construction statistics at the ABS, said the continued strong demand for detached housing follows the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions in most states and territories.

"Record low interest rates and a range of Federal and state-based incentives are also providing support for the housing sector,” Rossi said.

Housing Industry's Association's Craig Jennion said the figures show the start of the impact of stage one of HomeBuilder.

Last month the total number of dwelling approvals rose by 15.4 per cent to be 8.8 per cent higher than a year ago.

The October gains of nearly four per cent put approvals over 14 per cent higher than they were this time last year.

There were a further 10,692 private sector houses approved, up 3.1 per cent from September and 31.7 per cent from 12 months ago.

It's now back to back approvals of over 10,000 private sector houses. There hadn't been a single month of over 10,000 private sector houses approvals since June 2018.

There were 16,584 apartments approved, 3.8 per cent up from last month and 14.3 per cent up from the last year.

The biggest spike was seen in New South Wales where a further 32 per cent of apartments were approved from last month, with 4695 units approved.

Victoria unsurprisingly contracted from its big September approval figures, back 15 per cent but still had nearly 300 more apartments approved than New South Wales (4946)