Approvals drop back
After a solid rise in July, dwelling approvals fell back by -6 per cent in August to a seasonally adjusted 13,991.
Attached dwelling approvals were weak in Sydney (825) and Melbourne (1,472), but picked up a bit across Greater Brisbane (716).
House approvals were fairly steady at 9,338, seasonally adjusted, but are now trending higher in Melbourne, Brisbane, and especially Perth.
Overall, building approvals remain weak, but are at least beyond their cycle lows now.
Over the year, there were just 166,200 dwellings approved, and they probably need to be about 50 per cent higher to help address the housing shortage over the next few years.
There's still a lot of competition from infrastructure and non-residential building.
Retail sales were a bit better than expected after a warm month in August, at +0.7 per cent, moving the Aussie dollar slightly higher to 69.3 cents, though bond yields weren't much moved.
