Sydney apartment building boom skyrockets

Sydney has smashed the record for the number of units approved for building over a single month by any capital city.

Latest data from the ABS reports that unit building approvals skyrocketed to a remarkable 4,933 over July to clearly break the previous highest monthly total of 4,374 set by the local market over July last year.

20,668 units have been approved for building in Sydney over the first 7 months of this year which is an increase of 389 or 1.8 percent higher than the 20,299 approved over the same period last year.

Unit approvals in Sydney have clearly overtaken Melbourne where 17,517 were recorded over this year to July – 3152 fewer.

Although unit approvals in Sydney are at record levels, building approvals for houses continue to decline. 1408 house approvals were recorded over July which was the second consecutive month of declining activity.

So far this year  8,746 houses have been approved for building in Sydney which 340 less or decline of 3.7 percent compared to the 9,086 approved over the same period last year.

By contrast Melbourne has approved 15,281 houses for building this year so far which is well ahead of Sydney and an increase of 1583 or 11.6 higher than the 13,698 approved in Melbourne over the first 7 months of last year. Melbourne now accounts for 36 percent of all capital city house building approvals.

Surging building approvals for units in Sydney and for houses in Melbourne are good news for local economies working towards lower jobless rates and robust jobs growth.

Dr Andrew Wilson is Domain Group Chief Economist Twitter@DocAndrewWilson join on LinkedIn