The rebound in private home construction continued in October, according to figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday.
Approvals to build private houses rose 5% to 9,642 in October.
That was the 10th monthly rise in a row for private dwelling approvals.
In fact private approvals are now running at their highest level since 2004.
But approvals for apartments and renovations fell 19.3% to 2,512 as investors and developers continued to find it tough to get finance for apartments and home unit developments.
That saw overall building approvals fall for the first time in five months after the government reduced grants to first-time buyers and the central bank raised interest rates for a second month in a row.
The number of permits granted to build or renovate houses and apartments dropped 0.6% from September, when they rose a revised 5.1%, the ABS said.That was despite market forecasts for a rise of 2%.
The revised 5.1% rise for September was substantial as the first estimate was a rise of just 2.7%.
But approvals were still up 11.7% in October from a year earlier, with private dwelling approvals up more than 25% and non private dwelling approvals down almost 29% over the year.
The ABS said the "seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of total building approved fell 7.2% in October.
"The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of new residential building approved fell 0.3% while the value of alterations and additions approved rose 0.3%.
"The seasonally adjusted estimate for the value of non-residential building fell 14.4%."
Meanwhile the November Performance of Manufacturing Index has shown a second monthly easing in the measure, but not enough to reverse the growth trend in the sector.
The Australian Industry Group/PriceWaterhouseCoopers Performance of Manufacturing Index (PMI) eased 0.5 points to 51.2 in November, still just above the 50 threshold between contraction and expansion.
In a hopeful sign for the labour market, the index of employment jumped 9.1 points to 53.7, the first move into expansion in 23 months.
The PMI showed this came from a strong rise in employment in the transport equipment, clothing and footwear, chemicals, petroleum and coal products and construction materials sectors.
The survey’s measure of output also showed growth, nudging up 1.0 point to 54.0, but offsetting that were sharp falls in new orders down 5.8 points to 51.9 and inventories off 6.6 points to 42.8.
"The modest growth in activity in November underlines the tentative nature of the recovery," said Ai group Chief Executive Heather Ridout said in a statement.
"While new orders growth remained in positive territory, the stronger pace of improvement evident in October was short-lived.
"The strength of the Australian dollar is proving to be an important barrier to stronger recovery, adding to the need for caution in raising interest rates," she said.
