Building approvals hit a record high in March, as the surge in the number of apartments continues to increase, official data shows.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed the number of buildings approved lifted a seasonally adjusted 2.8 per cent to 19,419 in March.
The result beats forecasts by economists surveyed by Bloomberg, who predicted a 1.5 per cent fall in approvals during the month.
The figures are a new record high, outstripping January's previous high-water mark of 19,282 approvals.
March's jump in approvals was driven by a sharp increase in 'other dwellings', which includes apartment blocks and townhouses.
The figure for apartments is very volatile, representing the bulk approval rate for apartment towers, and lifted 5.3 per cent, in seasonally adjusted terms, during the month.
Over the 12 months to March, building approvals were up 23.6 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis, the ABS said.
Over the same period apartment approvals have surged 59.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, approvals for private sector houses rose by only 1.1 per cent in the month, leading to a 1.6 per cent increase over the twelve months to March.
In trend terms, which strips out month-to-month volatility, housing approvals increase 1.8 per cent in March for a twelve month increase of 18.2 per cent.
The trend estimate for total approvals, along with approvals for apartments, has now risen for 10 months straight.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia economist Diana Mousina said it was encouraging that there were solid increases in both categories.
"It's interesting to see that consistently the strength in approvals has been in this multi-unit sector, although the housing approvals also rose by a solid 1.1 per cent, so it shows that there is strong activity on both sides," she said.
"It means that we will have this period over 2015 and then extending into 2016 where we will have quite strong inflows from the residential construction story to growth, which is exactly what the RBA wants."
She said she didn't think the result would be enough to stop the Reserve Bank cutting the cash rate at its Tuesday board meeting.
JP Morgan economist Tom Kennedy said the continued rise in building approvals should help rein in the strong price rises of recent years, which has been led by Sydney.
"Building approvals increase shouldn't have a significant impact on what RBA is trying to do, I think a more significant issue is price growth and that's what they're keeping an eye on in regards to the outlook for the property sector," he said.
"Sydney is definitely outperforming, very strong population growth not really being matched at this stage by an increase in new homes, that's part of the reason why we're getting very strong price growth in Sydney."
Mr Kennedy added that the rise in building approvals bodes well for the economy in general.
"An increase in building approvals is beneficial and what the Reserve Bank is trying to manufacture, it stimulates growth and is a high multiplier through the economy, he said.
-- with AAP