Total building approvals in Western Australia have dropped 15 per cent in March, bucking the national 3.5 per cent rise, latest figures show.
Latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today show building approvals dropped from February's 1642 units to 1397 units, seasonally adjusted.
Compared to March last year, total building approvals in WA slumped 36 per cent.
Approvals for private sector other dwellings weighed heavily on the latest overall figure for WA, with approvals falling from 1558 units recorded in February to 1331 units in March.
Meantime approvals for private sector houses fell only 2 per cent from 1168 to 1146 units, seasonally adjusted.
The latest figures follow yesterday's ABS release of the house price index, which showed Perth's house prices had fallen 3.6 per cent in the March quarter.
Nationally, total building approvals rose 3.5 per cent to 10,494 units in March, seasonally adjusted, from an upwardly revised 10,135 units in February.
In the year to March, building approvals fell 16.5 per cent.
The market forecast was for building approvals to have recorded a rise of 2.8 per cent in March, and a decline of 18.8 per cent year on year.
