The building approvals figures for June were also mixed: a weak month to end what was started out as a strong year last July because of the first home buyers' stimulus and record low interest rates.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics said yesterday that the total number of dwellings approved fell in June 2010, and had now fallen for three months in seasonally adjusted terms.

That followed from a revised 6.4% fall in May (6.6% originally).

In the year to June there was a 13.2% rise in the total number of dwellings approved, but this was driven by private sector other dwellings which jumped more than 57%.

Total dwelling units approved were 11,717 in June 2009; in June of this year they were 13,262, after peaking at more than 16,400 in March of this year.

Private dwellings approved were only up 0.5% in the 12 months to June of this year at 8,620 units from 8,580 units, according to the ABS.

Private dwelling units peaked at 9,741 approvals in March, so the fall from the peak has been around 11% so far.

The ABS said the 3.3% fall in total dwelling units to 13,267 units in June, seasonally adjusted, followed an upwardly revised 13,721 units in May.

(The ABS reported that revisions in past months had found that nearly 1,600 extra dwellings approved.)

"Significant revisions to the number of dwellings approved for Western Australia and Victoria are the result of the inclusion of previously unreported data. Identified processing errors also resulted in revisions to Queensland data," the ABS said.

According to the ABS, NSW (-6.2%), Queensland (-8.1%) and South Australia (-25.4%) recorded less dwelling approvals this month, while Victoria (1.4%), Western Australia (1.4%) and Tasmania (21.3%) saw more dwelling approvals.

Private sector houses approved fell 2.5% due to falls in Victoria (-5.4%), Queensland (-8.9%) and South Australia (-4.0%). New South Wales (0.9%) and Western Australia (5.9%) rose.

The value of total buildings approved fell 2.4% in June in seasonally adjusted terms.

The value of total residential fell by 5.5% while non-residential rose by 4.4%.

In the 2009-10 financial year the ABS said the total number of dwellings approved was 168,400, up 26.5% from the previous year.

"Nationally, the number of house approvals rose 22.2% from the previous year while other dwellings rose 36.9%," the ABS said.

"The estimate for the total number of dwelling units approved rose in all states and territories with the ACT (57.2%), NSW (38.1%), the Northern Territory (36.4%) and Victoria (33.9%) recording the highest increases.

"The rise in number of houses approved during 2009-10 was driven by a 20.7% rise in private sector approvals and a 103.1% increase in public sector approvals.

"The increase in other dwellings was driven by an 18.2% increase in private sector approvals and a 288.2% increase in public sector approvals. Overall private sector dwelling units approved rose by 20.0% and public sector dwelling units approved rose by 214.8%.

"The value of total building approved in 2009-10 was $84,357.3m, a rise of 22.8% from the previous year with both residential and non-residential building approvals showing rises."