Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

	MEDIA RELEASE
December 1, 2009	Embargo: 11.30 am (AEDT)	90/2009

The number of private sector houses being approved has risen for the tenth consecutive month, according the latest ABS Building Approvals figures.

In seasonally adjusted terms the number of private sector houses approved rose 5.0% in October 2009.

However, the total number of dwellings approved fell 0.6% mainly driven by a large fall in other residential dwellings (-17.9%). New South Wales (-10.3%) and South Australia (-4.4%) recorded the largest falls in the total number of dwellings approved.

The value of total building approved fell 7.2% in October. Falls occurred in non-residential building (-14.4%) and residential building (-0.2%) . The value of alteration and additions to residential property rose 0.3% to $537.9m.

Further information is available in Building Approvals, Australia (cat no. 8731.0)

Media note
When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.