New Figures Show Apartment Approvals Jumping While House Approvals Slip

Every month, the Australian Bureau of Statistics publishes data on how many new homes have been given the green light by councils and planning authorities around the country. Today's release, covering September, tells an interesting story for anyone keeping half an eye on how much new housing is actually coming.

On the surface, the numbers look strong. Total approvals for new homes rose 5.1 per cent in September to 17,948 nationally. But that single figure hides two very different trends happening side by side, and both are worth understanding if you're planning to buy, build, or simply trying to work out whether more homes are on the way.

Houses fell while apartments and townhouses jumped

Approvals for standalone houses actually fell in September, down 5.3 per cent to 10,432. The ABS described it as the largest monthly drop since August last year. At the same time, approvals for apartments, townhouses and other higher density homes jumped 16.6 per cent to 6,579, with apartment approvals specifically up 25.6 per cent to 4,129 in original terms.

It's worth reading both of those moves with a little context rather than taking either at face value. House approvals, even after September's fall, are still 9.6 per cent higher than a year ago, and this was the ninth month in a row they've stayed above 10,000. So the fall looks more like a pause after a strong run than the start of a downturn. Apartment and townhouse approvals, on the other hand, are still running 20.5 per cent below where they were a year ago, despite the jump. In other words, September's rebound is coming off a genuinely low base, not a sign that apartment building has suddenly taken off.

New South Wales did a lot of the heavy lifting on the apartment side. Approvals there nearly tripled from 901 in August to 1,995 in September, helping push the state's total dwelling approvals up 37.3 per cent to 5,322, its best result in a year.

What it looked like in Victoria

Victoria approved 2,895 houses and 3,694 dwellings in total during September, among the strongest house approval counts of any state and ahead of Queensland's 2,407, South Australia's 955 and Western Australia's 1,832. The ABS release doesn't break out a month on month percentage change for Victoria specifically, so it's hard to say from this data alone whether that's a step up or a step down on August. What it does tell us is that Victoria is still approving a meaningful number of new houses each month, even while the state's overall market has been through a long stretch of softer prices.

Why approvals matter, and why they don't tell the whole story

It's easy to see an approvals number and assume it translates fairly quickly into homes you can actually buy. It doesn't work that way. Getting a development approved is only the first step. Builders then need to line up finance, sign up buyers or tenants, and actually construct the thing, a process that can take well over a year for a house and considerably longer for a large apartment block. So a rise in apartment approvals this month is a signal about supply that might show up in 2028, not a sign that more apartments are suddenly available to buy today.

That lag matters for how you read this data depending on where you sit. If you're a first home buyer or upgrader looking right now, September's approval figures won't change what's on the market for you this summer. If you're thinking several years ahead, a steady flow of apartment and townhouse approvals is a reasonable, if early, sign that more medium density housing should eventually make its way onto the market in established and growth suburbs alike.

What this means if you're planning ahead

None of this changes the basics of getting into the market today. Whether you end up buying an established house, a new townhouse, or an off the plan apartment, the finance questions are largely the same: how much you can borrow, what kind of deposit you need, and how a loan fits with your income and other commitments. New build and off the plan purchases do bring their own quirks, including progress payments during construction and valuation risk if the market moves between contract and completion, which are worth talking through properly before you sign anything.

If you're weighing up whether to wait for a new development to come to market or buy something that already exists, it's a genuinely useful conversation to have with a broker before you commit to either path, because the right finance structure can look quite different depending on which route you take.

Figures note: dwelling approval numbers, percentage changes, and state breakdowns are drawn from the Australian Bureau of Statistics release "Total dwelling approvals rise 5.1% in September," published 2 November 2026, and corroborated by Australian Broker's reporting of the same data, also published 2 November 2026.

This article is general information only and does not take into account your personal objectives, financial situation or needs. Please speak with a Claremont Financial broker before making any borrowing decision.