When people talk about Australia’s housing supply, it is easy to focus on the number of homes that are needed. Building approvals offer one useful part of that picture, but they are only an early step: an approval does not guarantee that a home will be completed, occupied or affordable.
This report looks at building approvals recorded from July 2025 to June 2026. Using Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data for local government areas (LGAs), it explores how approvals changed over the year, which residential building types were most common, where the largest totals were recorded, and whether LGAs with more approved dwellings also reported higher building value.
The aim is to make the patterns in the data easier to see while being clear about what the figures can—and cannot—tell us.
| Check | Result |
|---|---|
| Rows in downloaded file | 300240 |
| Date range | Jul 2025 to Jun 2026 |
| Unique LGAs | 556 |
| Total dwelling-unit rows used | 6672 |
| Residential type categories retained | 3 |
| Building-value rows identified from measure labels | 6672 |
| Missing values in source value field | 73392 |
| building_type_code | building_type |
|---|---|
| 110 | Houses |
| 120 | Semi-detached, row or terrace houses, townhouses - Total |
| 130 | Apartments - Total including those attached to a house |
| measure_code | measure |
|---|---|
| 1 | Number of dwelling units |
| 2 | Value of building jobs |
| 3 | Number of building jobs valued $50,000 or more |
For the national and LGA totals, I use the ABS rows marked as the total for work and building type. For the housing-type charts, I use the three component categories—houses, semi-detached or townhouse dwellings, and apartments—and leave out aggregate and non-residential rows. This keeps the comparison focused on distinct residential groups rather than mixing totals with their parts. The source’s measure labels are also shown in the data checks so the building-value measure can be reviewed. Where a value is missing, I have not automatically treated it as zero.
What stands out: Approvals move up and down across the year rather than following a steady path. The lowest month was January 2026, with 10,698 approved dwelling units. The highest was February 2026, with 19,229. This is one financial year of data, so it shows short-term movement rather than a long-term trend.
What stands out: Houses account for the largest number of approvals among the three categories shown, at 121,513. The next-largest category is Apartments - Total including those attached to a house, with 48,828. Apartments and semi-detached or townhouse dwellings still make up a substantial part of the approvals shown, so the picture is not limited to detached houses. These totals cover the three selected categories in this dataset, not every possible residential category.
What stands out: Brisbane records the highest total in this period, with 9,255 approved dwelling units. It is followed by Gold Coast (7,616) and Moreton Bay (6,656). These are raw counts, so places with larger populations or more development activity may naturally record more approvals. The ranking does not measure approvals per person or identify where housing is least affordable.
What stands out: Houses form the largest part of the monthly total throughout the period, while apartments and semi-detached or townhouse dwellings add a sizeable share. The combined total for these three categories is lowest in January 2026 and highest in February 2026. A taller stack means more approvals across these categories overall; it does not necessarily mean that each category’s share increased.
What stands out: The points show a generally positive relationship: LGAs with more approved dwellings tend to report a higher total value of building jobs. The points are not tightly packed along a single line, however, and a few LGAs sit well above the main cluster. This suggests that the value associated with approvals also varies between areas. The measure is reported building-job value in thousands of dollars; it is not a house sale price, rent, cost per dwelling or measure of affordability. The scatterplot shows association, not cause and effect.
Taken together, the charts show that approvals changed noticeably during 2025–26, houses were the largest of the three residential categories compared, and approval totals were concentrated in a group of LGAs. The scatterplot also suggests that higher dwelling-approval totals tend to accompany higher reported building value, although the relationship is not exact.
There are important limits to keep in mind. An approval is not a completed home, and the data do not directly measure affordability, housing need or whether local demand has been met. LGA rankings are based on raw totals rather than population-adjusted rates. Building value refers to the value of building jobs in the ABS table, not the market price of dwellings. The findings should therefore be read as a snapshot of approval activity during one financial year, not as a complete verdict on Australia’s housing supply.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2026). Building approvals, Australia: Latest release [Data set]. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/building-and-construction/building-approvals-australia/latest-release
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2026). Building approvals by Local Government Area (LGA 2025) (BA_LGA2025) [Data set]. ABS Data Explorer. https://dataexplorer.abs.gov.au/vis?df[ds]=ABS_ABS_TOPICS&df[id]=BA_LGA2025&df[ag]=ABS&df[vs]=1.0.0
National Digital. (2026, October 20). Building approvals by Local Government Area, monthly, 2025–26, Australia [Machine-readable data distribution]. publicdata.au. https://publicdata.au/d/au-building-approvals-by-lga-2025-26/v/2026-10-20/