Apartment Approvals Fall Again as Houses Nudge Up

Approvals for apartments have slumped again, down 24.5 per cent across January, according to fresh data from the ABS.

The total number of homes approved in Australia fell 7.2 per cent in January to 14,564, according to the seasonally adjusted data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The decline was largely driven by the fall in private homes excluding houses, the second consecutive monthly drop after a 30.7 per cent fall in December, ABS head of construction statistics Daniel Rossi said.

Private sector house approvals rose slightly, up 1.1 per cent to 9753 homes—a 7.1 per cent increase compared with January 2025.

Western Australia recorded the strongest growth, up 11.5 per cent to reach its highest level since May 2021, while South Australia had the largest fall at 8.9 per cent.

Apartment approvals almost halved in January to 1819 homes, a larger drop than December and 60.1 per cent lower than a year earlier. Townhouse approvals also fell, down 39.2 per cent to ,684 homes, marking an 11 per cent decline year-on-year.

Rossi noted that January often records weaker approvals due to holidays and annual leave.

While residential approvals fell, the total value of building approvals rose 7.3 per cent to $17.71 billion, driven by a 19.1 per cent jump in non-residential building to $8.24 billion.

Total residential building fell 1.2 per cent to $9.48 billion, comprising a 1.6 per cent drop in new residential construction and a 1.6 per cent rise in alterations and additions.

Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest said while it was not sensible to draw long-term conclusions from a single month’s data, the figures were a timely reminder that government must be ever vigilant and look to implement new measures to speed up planning approvals and give greater certainty to applicants.

He said the growing challenge was the threat of project feasibility.

“The approval rates are already well below the Housing Accord’s completion targets,” Forrest said.

“But there is an emerging risk arising from high fees, taxes and charges along with ongoing skills shortages and high construction labour costs, that many of these approvals will not be converted into new houses because they just aren’t feasible.”