Australia’s path to 1.2 million homes: Climbing approvals a positive sign

Recent data from the ABS has unveiled a new high for the total number of homes approved across the country.  

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released its latest data of building approvals for June 2025, which saw the total number of new homes approved reach its highest level since August 2022.  

The total number rose 11.9% to 17,076, according to the latest seasonally adjusted data from the ABS.   

Similarly to May’s numbers, these figures were driven by a strong rise in private dwellings excluding houses, which accounts for semi-detached, terrace houses, townhouses and apartments.  

This category alone saw a 33.1% increase in June to 7594 dwellings. 

In original terms, apartments alone rose 12.2% in June following a 30.9% increase in May.  

Across the country, results were mixed for the total number of approvals. For the month, NSW led with 31.5%, followed by Queensland (7.3%) and South Australia (2.5%) while Western Australia and Victoria fell by 6.4% and 6.1% respectively.  

Approvals for houses fell by 2% to 9142, with falls recorded across the country. The largest fall was in Queensland with -6.3%, while Victoria was the only state that rose in this category with an increase of 1.4%.  

“There have been a total of 185,844 dwellings approved, in original terms over the last 12 months. This is 13.5 per cent higher than the 12 months before that, which had 163,692 dwellings approved,” ABS head of construction statistics Daniel Rossi said.

“The 7594 private sector dwellings excluding houses, was the highest result for the series since December 2022.”  

The Housing Industry Association’s senior economist Tom Devitt said strong population growth, labour markets and recovering household incomes have helped improve confidence in the sector. Previous interest rate cuts have also played a role.    

“Interest rate cuts from the Reserve Bank in February and May this year, with the expectation of more to come, will help bring more potential homebuyers back to the market in the lagging – and often more expensive – states and territories,” Mr Devitt said.  

Despite this, Mr Devitt said the challenge will be gaining momentum to meet Australia’s target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029, under the National Housing Accord. 

At a minimum, the country needs to approve 240,000 homes each year to hit this target.  

“Even with lower interest rates, Australia is set to start just 200,000 homes per year, on average, over the next four years,” Mr Devitt said.  

The Property Council of Australia struck a similar tone, welcoming the figures while noting that more progress must be made. 

The council said the rise in apartment approvals alone was a positive sign, with 42,387 approved in the 2024-25 financial year – a 42.1% increase from 29,826 in 2023-24.  

“Pleasingly, there has been a solid increase in the number of apartments approved. Apartment approvals are liable to volatility, but a year of solid growth is a positive sign,” Property Council Group executive policy and advocacy Matthew Kandelaars said.  

Mr Kandelaars also noted that despite the overall increase in approvals over the financial year, productivity needs to be addressed to boost home building.  

“While there have been improvements in the last financial year, the data shows we are still not approving enough homes,” he said.  

“Too many projects are getting stalled in the thickets of regulation. We need to unlock more homes by removing planning and environmental red tape to push assessments through the system sooner and with greater certainty.”  

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