High-rise apartments whacked by COVID

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) on Friday released its dwelling approvals data for December, which revealed that monthly apartment approvals have fallen 46% below their November 2017 peak, while monthly detached approvals have fallen 31% from their April 2021 HomeBuilder record high:

Below are a series of charts that track approvals by housing segment in rolling annual terms nationally and across the major states.

National

Nationally, you can clearly see the impact of HomeBuilder, with detached house approvals running just below record highs while high-rise apartment approvals are running 50% below their October 2015 peak:

New South Wales

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About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.