MEDIA RELEASE
3 April 2017	Embargoed: 11.30 am (Canberra time)	34/2017

The number of dwellings approved rose 0.8 per cent in February 2017, in trend terms, after falling for eight months, according to data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today.

Dwelling approvals increased in February in New South Wales (2.5 per cent), Victoria (1.4 per cent), Tasmania (0.9 per cent) and South Australia (0.5 per cent), but decreased in the Australian Capital Territory (15.6 per cent), Northern Territory (12.3 per cent), Queensland (0.7 per cent) and Western Australia (0.2 per cent) in trend terms.

In trend terms, approvals for private sector houses fell 0.6 per cent in February. Private sector house approvals fell in South Australia (1.7 per cent), Western Australia (0.6 per cent), New South Wales (0.5 per cent), Victoria (0.3 per cent) and Queensland (0.1 per cent).

In seasonally adjusted terms, dwelling approvals increased by 8.3 per cent in February, driven by a rise in total dwellings excluding houses (11.0 per cent) and total house approvals (5.7 per cent).

The value of total building approved fell 0.1 per cent in February, in trend terms, and has fallen for seven months. The value of residential building approved rose 1.5 per cent while non-residential building fell 3.3 per cent.

Further information is available in Building Approvals, Australia (cat no. 8731.0) on the ABS website at https://www.abs.gov.au.

Media notes:

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