Australian Home-Building Approvals Rose Strongly in June

The number of Australian home building permits rose by 10.9% in June, rebounding from a fall in the previous month.

Approvals to build or renovate houses and apartments declined by 2.3% from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.

Permits to build houses rose by 3.4% from a month earlier, while approvals for apartments and other dwellings rose by 20%.

Australian residential building construction has begun to slow after years of strength that was led by a surge in the building of apartments.

Rising home loan interest rates and regulatory clamps on lending to property investors are also curbing housing demand and dampening recent price growth.

The cooling of housing construction is expected to become a bigger drag on GDP growth in the coming year.

More broadly, conditions in the housing market nationally vary considerably from city to city. House prices have been rising quickly in some markets, where weakness in evident in others.

In the eastern capital cities, a considerable additional supply of apartments is scheduled to come on stream over the next couple of years, weighing on prices growth.

-Write to James Glynn at james.glynn@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 01, 2017 21:47 ET (01:47 GMT)