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The surge in housing construction continued after more than 230,000 building approvals were issued in the year to September.
September was another strong month for building approvals, with 18,900 issued, according to new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
That marked a 2.2 per cent monthly increase and a 21.4 per cent annual increase.
Private sector house approvals reached 9,536, which was down 1.9 per cent on the month but up 1.5 per cent on the year.
There were also 9,134 approvals for private sector dwellings excluding houses – up 6.1 per cent monthly and 53.5 per cent annually.
Over the year to September, 230,298 building approvals were issued.
Nick Proud from the Property Council of Australia said that while that was a result, one good year won’t make up for a decade of under-building.
“We are only now starting to see new housing supply eat into demand in key markets like Sydney and take some of the heat out of house prices,” he said.
“A strong, sustainable pipeline of new housing is imperative to ensure future housing affordability and must be a priority for government.”
Housing Industry Association economist Geordan Murray said the current building cycle appears to have peaked, with approval numbers likely to slow in early 2016.
“However, there is a very large volume of work in the pipeline that will sustain a very healthy level of actual building activity throughout the upcoming year,” he said.
[Related: Supply-side bottlenecks blamed for fall in approvals]
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