Dwelling approvals data for June 2012 was released early this week by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Dwelling approvals fell by -2.5% over the month with private sector house approvals falling by -1.1% and private sector unit approvals falling by -4.5%. Dwelling approvals were 10.2% higher over the twelve months to June, with the increase fuelled by a 49.5% increase in the more volatile ‘private sector unit’ approvals which was somewhat offset by a -7.7% fall in private sector house approvals.
The Reserve Bank (RBA) released their private sector financial aggregates for June 2012 earlier this week. Specifically relating to private sector housing demand, the results showed that housing credit increased by a record low 0.3%, and 5.1% over the year. The results highlight that growth in home lending across the private sector is still occurring however, it is at record lows. Growth in credit for investment housing (5.3%) rose by a greater amount than owner occupier housing (4.9%) over the past 12 months.
Auction clearance rates across the combined capital cities fell to 50.8% last week from 52.1% the previous week. Auction volumes increased significantly, with 1,170 auctions last week compared to 880 auctions over the previous week. In Melbourne, auction clearance rates fell from 57.6% the previous week to 51.3% last week. The volume of properties taken to auction increased quite significantly from 370 the previous week to 521 auctions last week. In Sydney, auction clearance rates fell from 57.6% over the previous week to 53.4% last week.