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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Queensland councils and certifiers approved 4,200 dwellings in July in seasonally adjusted terms, 13.9 per cent fewer than in June. The Australian Bureau of Statistics published the figures on Tuesday 1 September, and they show the steepest monthly fall among the five largest states.
The longer view is different. In trend terms, which smooth out month-to-month swings, Queensland approvals rose 2.1 per cent in July to 4,361 and were 20.0 per cent higher than in July 2025, according to the Queensland Government Statistician's Office summary released the same morning.
The monthly figures
Private sector houses accounted for 2,239 of July's seasonally adjusted approvals, down 5.5 per cent on June. That leaves about 1,960 other dwellings, a group that takes in apartments, townhouses and public sector housing. Houses were therefore a little over half of the State's total, at 53 per cent.
Since the total fell much further than houses did, most of the month's decline came from that second group. A fall of 13.9 per cent to 4,200 implies a June total of close to 4,900, so the State approved nearly 700 fewer dwellings in July than a month earlier, and houses explain only a small part of the difference.
Nationally, the Bureau reports 17,687 dwellings approved in July, down 3.6 per cent after a rise of 6.9 per cent in June. Queensland was one of three large states where the total fell, with New South Wales down 8.1 per cent and Western Australia down 0.3 per cent. Approvals rose 9.7 per cent in Victoria and 5.9 per cent in South Australia. Tasmania, a much smaller market at 266 dwellings, rose 15.2 per cent.
Related readSouthern Thornlands plan for 8,000 homes goes out for public commentSource: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Building Approvals, Australia, July 2026, released 1 September 2026.
Even after the fall, Queensland's total was within about 10 per cent of those of the two more populous states. On houses alone it was ahead of New South Wales: 2,239 private sector houses against 2,178. Victoria approved 2,939.
House approvals fell in every one of the five largest states in July, the Bureau's table shows, from a dip of 0.1 per cent in Western Australia to 10.7 per cent in South Australia. Queensland's 5.5 per cent sits in the middle of that range. Across the country, private sector houses fell 4.2 per cent to 10,199, and other private dwellings slipped 0.4 per cent to 7,119.
The national apartment count held up better than Queensland's result suggests. In original terms, the Bureau's media release says, apartment approvals across Australia fell 10.1 per cent in July to 4,344, which was still 6.8 per cent above the average of 4,069 for the previous twelve months. Private dwellings other than houses were 19.9 per cent higher than in July 2025. On those measures the national flow of higher-density approvals was still larger in July than it had been a year earlier, even as the monthly count eased.
Why the trend tells a different story
Monthly approvals in Queensland move sharply because of apartments. One tower can add several hundred dwellings to a month's count, and the next month has none. The seasonally adjusted series keeps those swings. The trend series is designed to show the medium to long-term direction, in the Bureau's description of its method.
On the trend measure, the Statistician's Office reports, Queensland accounted for 23.7 per cent of all dwellings approved in Australia in July, and its 20.0 per cent annual rise compares with 11.7 per cent for the country. Its summaries for the previous two months give the direction of travel.
Related readStockland named first partner in the State's new developer program| Month | Monthly change | Change on a year earlier | Share of Australia |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 2026 | -1.9% | +13.6% | 21.6% |
| June 2026 | +4.1% | +24.7% | 23.4% |
| July 2026 | +2.1% | +20.0% | 23.7% |
Source: Queensland Government Statistician's Office summaries of ABS Building Approvals, released 1 July, 30 July and 1 September 2026. Trend estimates for earlier months are revised with each release.
Two things stand out. Queensland's share of national approvals has risen for two releases in a row, and the annual growth rate, while still high, is lower in July than it was in June.
Houses are the flat part of the picture. Trend approvals of private sector houses in Queensland were 2,319 in July, down 0.7 per cent in the month, and made up 22.1 per cent of the national figure. The growth over the past year has come from dwellings other than houses.
The Housing Industry Association, commenting on the release on 1 September, measured the same thing over three months. It said Queensland approvals in the three months to July were 24.0 per cent higher than in the same period a year earlier, the strongest result of the five mainland states it reports in seasonally adjusted terms. Western Australia followed at 15.3 per cent and South Australia at 9.5 per cent, with Victoria up 2.8 per cent and New South Wales down 1.3 per cent. The equivalent national figure was 8.3 per cent.
So one month's sharp fall sits on top of a year of strong growth. Both statements are true, and which matters more depends on whether July turns out to be a pause or a turn.
How the count is made
The Bureau's method explains why the two series can disagree, and why any single month should be read with care.
An approval is a permit, and the numbers are revised
The ABS compiles approvals from permits issued by councils and private certifiers and from work authorised by public bodies. It says figures for any month may be corrected in later months, as late records arrive, and that revisions typically reach back 12 to 18 months.
The collection covers residential work valued at $10,000 or more, according to the Bureau's methodology. A house, in its definitions, is a detached building of one dwelling. Everything else falls under dwellings excluding houses: townhouses, which have their own private grounds with nothing above or below them, and apartments, which share an entrance, foyer or stairwell.
Related readToowoomba water plant grant is the largest yet from the State fundSeasonal adjustment removes the regular calendar pattern from the raw counts. Each state is adjusted independently and then reconciled to the national total. That process does not remove the irregular arrival of large projects, which is why a state with a busy apartment sector can record a double-digit monthly change in either direction without any shift in underlying demand.
The value of work approved
The value of work approved gives a steadier picture for now. The Statistician's Office puts the trend value of residential building approved in Queensland in July at $2,918.4 million, almost unchanged on June, out of $11,376.1 million nationally. That is a little over a quarter of the national total by value, a larger share than Queensland holds by number of dwellings.
Non-residential approvals moved more. The trend value in Queensland rose 6.1 per cent in July to $1,541.3 million, against a national rise of 2.9 per cent to $9,567.3 million.
In seasonally adjusted terms the Bureau reports that the national value of residential building approved fell 4.9 per cent in July to $11.26 billion, while non-residential building rose 14.4 per cent to $9.93 billion. Taken together, the value of all building approved rose 3.3 per cent to $21.19 billion. Westpac's economists, writing on the day of the release, attributed much of that non-residential rise to data centre projects.
What the industry is watching
The Housing Industry Association's reading is cautious. It attributes a softening in new home building to higher interest rates, tax changes affecting investors and global economic pressures, while noting that approvals over the past three months remain well above those of a year earlier.
The rate setting is known. The Reserve Bank of Australia left the cash rate at 4.35 per cent on 11 August after three increases earlier in 2026, as reported by Savings.com.au on the day. Westpac's note on the approvals release lists those increases, together with elevated construction costs, as risks to the outlook for building.
Sales of new homes, which come before approvals in the order of events, have already turned. The association's New Home Sales report of 21 August showed national sales down 3.7 per cent in July, the third monthly fall in a row. Queensland recorded the largest monthly fall of the five states it covers, at 10.9 per cent, although sales in the State over the year to July were still 10.0 per cent higher than a year before.
Approvals are an early signal and an imperfect one. They record permission to build, not building. A project approved in July may start in months, be delayed or not proceed. They are still the first hard number in the chain that ends with completed homes. The Queensland Government's stated commitment is one million homes by 2044, and against that the 20 per cent rise in the trend over the past year is the more important line in this release, with the monthly fall a reminder of how much of that rise depends on apartment projects being approved.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
