The Property Council of Australia has warned apartment approval numbers need to pick up after today's housing approval numbers showed another tumble.
The total number of approved homes fell by 5.7 per cent in April to 14,633, according to seasonally adjusted data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Australia must build over 20,000 homes each month to reach our target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029.
In original terms, only 2,539 apartments were approved in April, a 17.38 per cent drop from the 3,073 approved in March. This means that 5,612 apartments were approved across March and April, compared with 8,625 approved across January and February.
Approvals for single-family homes rose by 3.1 per cent in April, in seasonally adjusted terms.
Property Council Group Executive Policy and Advocacy Matthew Kandelaars said the apartment market is still facing a challenging environment.
"While apartment approval numbers are volatile, this is two months in a row of significant falls," he said.
"Just 5,612 apartments were approved in March and April. This is a far cry from the 15,029 greenlit during March and April in the apartment boom of 2016.
"We will not meet our housing targets without the heavy lifting that needs to come from apartments that can deliver homes at scale close to transport, existing infrastructure and amenities.
"Even with approval in hand, it can take years for a project to start construction, held back by a tight labour market, high construction costs and complicated planning systems.
"Despite a welcome and ambitious target and hard work through the last term of the federal parliament, for many Australians, the dream of home ownership is increasingly unaffordable or completely out of reach.
"State and territory governments need to step up. Planning is key to delivering more homes, and our approvals data shows that the current systems are not working. More must be done to cut red tape and streamline our planning systems to remove uncertainty."
