Australian Home-Building Approvals Rose in November

Australian building approvals climbed 11.7% in November from October, driven by a sharp jump in apartment permits.

Approvals to build or renovate houses and apartments gained 17.1% from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Tuesday. Permits to build houses fell by 2.0% from a month earlier, while approvals for apartments and other dwellings rose by 30.6%.

Australia's housing market is expected to slow in 2018 as prices slow amid tighter restriction on lending, especially to investors.

Economists also see some risk that interest rates will rise toward the end fo 2018, ending a period of record low borrowing costs in effect since late 2016.

The pace of the housing slowdown will give a major signal around how fast the economy will grow in 2018, and could put a brake on what was strong employment growth in 2017.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2018 19:48 ET (00:48 GMT)