Building approvals remain high despite fall in August

The latest building approvals for August 2015 saw approvals for dwellings fall by 6.9 per cent seasonally adjusted.

“The roller coaster ride for high rise apartments units continued but there was an encouraging lift in detached house approvals according the latest figures for August 2015,” Peter Jones, Chief Economist of Master Builders said.

“Approvals for major unit developments, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne continue to dominate approvals data, but increasing volatility may signal the approaching peak of the cycle for high rise apartments,” he said.

Whilst residential builders are enjoying a long-awaited cyclical upturn, structural issues remain,” Peter Jones said.

“Supply side bottlenecks and inefficiencies in making available an adequate supply of serviced land must be addressed if Australia’s housing affordability problem is to be solved particularly for first home buyers,” he said.

“Master Builders has long called for the implementation of a national affordability agenda across federal, state and local government and welcomes the recent call by Treasurer Scott Morrison for national leadership of this process,” Peter Jones said.