National dwelling approvals have recorded a slight upswing in April, recording the first rally in 2013 according to the latest figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The April rally follows a nil growth in March and two consecutive decreases in January and February earlier this year.

On a state by state basis, dwelling approvals decreased in April in the Australian Capital Territory (-2.2 per cent), Victoria (-1.1 per cent) and South Australia (-0.8 per cent) but increased in Northern Territory (8.7 per cent), Tasmania (2.9 per cent), Western Australia (2.5 per cent), New South Wales (0.7 per cent) and Queensland (0.5 per cent) in trend terms.

Dwelling approval trends have been rising for more than one year in both Western Australia and Queensland (15 months each) while falling for the last nine months in Victoria.

In trend terms, approvals for private sector houses rose 1.0 per cent in April, the fourth consecutive monthly increase. Of the states and territories, Western Australia (1.9 per cent), New South Wales (1.3 per cent) and Victoria (1.1 per cent) experienced the largest rises in private sector house approvals. In New South Wales the trend has been rising since April last year (13 months). Private sector house approvals rose in Queensland (0.2 per cent) for the first time since February 2012.

The trend value of total building approved rose 1.2 per cent in April and has now risen for 15 months. The values of residential building rose 0.1 per cent and non-residential building rose 2.7 per cent.

The full data set can be found here