ACT dwelling approvals fell by a third in July – the sharpest drop nationwide. The Property Council has warned that the ACT’s housing pipeline needs more momentum, but the ACT Government says that Canberra remains on track to meet its housing target.
257 homes were approved in the ACT in July, down from 387 in June, a decline of 33.6 per cent, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows.
The ACT Government said that the July fall followed two months of strong growth: approvals increased by 142.5 per cent in May and by 25.6 per cent in June.
It also said that approvals in July were 17.4 per cent higher than in July 2025. Other residential approvals increased by 26.3 per cent, but standalone house approvals declined by 4.8 per cent.
It said that monthly approval data can be volatile, particularly in a small market where the timing and scale of development applications influence results, but its pipeline remains strong.
Ashlee Berry, executive director of the Property Council ACT and Capital Region, acknowledged that monthly approval numbers could be volatile, but said the figures showed that the pipeline needed to be more consistent.
“Monthly approval numbers will rise and fall, but the direction of travel matters,” Ms Berry said. “We need a stronger and more reliable pipeline if we are going to convert housing demand into completed homes.”
The ACT Government has committed to enabling 30,000 new homes by 2030.
The National Housing Supply and Affordability Council’s August 2026 quarterly outlook predicts that the ACT will meet its National Housing Accord target by December 2029 – one of only three jurisdictions on track to do so.
Since 1 July 2024, almost 7,300 new homes have been delivered in the ACT.
As of the March quarter, 6,330 dwellings were under construction, while 723 dwellings had been approved but construction had not begun yet.
“The Territory has made important progress through planning reform, missing middle housing reforms and changes designed to support housing supply, but approvals are only the beginning of the process,” Ms Berry said.
“What matters is whether projects can move into construction and then through to completion.”
Ms Berry said that construction costs, financing conditions, taxes, charges, and approval delays affected whether developments proceeded.
“At a time when approvals are falling, the priority should be improving feasibility and accelerating delivery, not adding new costs or red tape to housing projects. This is not the time to be making it harder to build homes.”
The ACT Government acknowledged that construction costs, financing conditions and approval timeframes affect project feasibility, but said all of Australia was experiencing these challenges. It said it was responding through planning reforms, streamlined approvals, land releases, changes to housing-related taxes and charges, and missing middle housing reforms to support greater housing diversity.
“While some pressures are driven by broader economic conditions, the ACT Government remains focused on the areas within its control, including planning, land supply, infrastructure coordination and regulatory settings, to support housing delivery,” the government said.
