Economy enjoys boost in building approvals
After a spate of less than impressive economic data,it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel, with building approvals on the rise.
New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found total residential building approvals rose by 8.7 per cent in December 2010 to be up by 1.8 per cent over the quarter.
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Total approvals in the December 2010 quarter are 3.4 per cent lower than in the same quarter of 2009.
“The December approvals are driven almost singularly by private sector other dwellings which rose by 21.3 per cent, while private sector detached dwellings were flat in December and are down by 16.0 per cent over the course of 2010,” HIA chief economist Andrew Harvey said.
“Private sector other dwellings is a notoriously volatile market segment, so it’s hard to read too much into this result. However, a modest upwards trend is evident and in the current climate anything pointing to an improvement in residential building conditions is highly welcome.”
According to Mr Harvey, much of the monthly December headline result was driven by a 16.7 per cent rise in NSW approvals, followed by Victoria with 11.4 per cent growth.
