Building approvals by council
/v1/lga/{lga_name}/planning/building-approvals5¢ per callNew dwellings approved each month in every council area from July 2021: houses, other residential (units, townhouses, apartments) and the total, with the value of the building work approved.
Coverage: 561 council areas in every state and territory; monthly, July 2021 to August 2026. Current to 2026-08-31. Full description, field list and method: /v1/datasets/building-approvals.
Authorization
Request
The only values you send. Fields under Responses below are what comes back — you never pass those.
Path parameters
lga_namestringrequiredCouncil (LGA) name exactly as /v1/lga/list returns it, e.g. `Lake Macquarie`.
Query parameters
fieldsstringoptionalComma-separated subset of: dwellings_houses, dwellings_other_residential, dwellings_total, value_houses_k, value_other_residential_k, value_total_k. Omit for all.
fromstringoptionalFirst period to include: 2020, 2020-Q3, 2020-07 or 2020-07-01.
tostringoptionalLast period to include, same formats as `from`.
Responses
Successful Response
datasetstringalways returnedDataset slug; describe it with /v1/datasets/{slug}.
levelstringalways returnedsuburb, lga or block.
areastringalways returnedCanonical name (or mesh-block code) of the area answered.
period_typestringalways returnedsnapshot, year, financial_year, quarter or month.
as_ofstring · datealways returnedDate the dataset is current to. Values are never withheld for age; check this instead.
modelledbooleanalways returnedTrue when the figures are estimates from a model rather than counts or measurements.
fieldsarray of DatasetFieldSeriesalways returned/v1/lga/{lga_name}/planning/building-approvalscurl --request GET \
--url 'https://api.microburbs.com.au/v1/lga/Lake%20Macquarie/planning/building-approvals' \
--header 'Authorization: Bearer test'{
"data": {
"dataset": "building-approvals",
"level": "lga",
"area": "Lake Macquarie",
"period_type": "month",
"as_of": "2026-08-31",
"modelled": false,
"fields": [
{
"field": "dwellings_houses",
"name": "Houses approved",
"unit": "dwellings",
"values": [
{
"period": "2026-06",
"period_start": "2026-06-01",
"value": 89
},
{
"period": "2026-07",
"period_start": "2026-07-01",
"value": 102
},
{
"period": "2026-08",
"period_start": "2026-08-01",
"value": 86
}
]
},
{
"field": "dwellings_other_residential",
"name": "Other residential approved",
"unit": "dwellings",
"values": [
{
"period": "2026-06",
"period_start": "2026-06-01",
"value": 28
},
{
"period": "2026-07",
"period_start": "2026-07-01",
"value": 22
},
{
"period": "2026-08",
"period_start": "2026-08-01",
"value": 42
}
]
},
{
"field": "dwellings_total",
"name": "Total new dwellings approved",
"unit": "dwellings",
"values": [
{
"period": "2026-06",
"period_start": "2026-06-01",
"value": 117
},
{
"period": "2026-07",
"period_start": "2026-07-01",
"value": 124
},
{
"period": "2026-08",
"period_start": "2026-08-01",
"value": 128
}
]
}
]
}
}About this dataset
561 council areas in every state and territory; monthly, July 2021 to August 2026. Current to 2026-08-31; refreshed monthly.
What it is
Monthly building approvals for each local government area (council): how many new dwellings were approved, split into houses and other residential, and how much the approved new residential building work is worth. It adds council-level detail below the state and capital-city building-approvals series we already serve under the economics endpoints.
What it shows
For each council and month from July 2021: new houses approved, new other-residential dwellings approved (semi-detached, row and terrace houses, townhouses, and apartments of all heights), the total new dwellings approved, and the value in thousands of dollars of the approved new building work for each of the three. Public and private sector builds are both counted.
Why use it
Approvals are the earliest hard signal of future housing supply: they lead completions by a year or two. Month by month at council level they show where building is accelerating or stalling, how the mix is shifting between houses and apartments, and which councils are carrying the supply pipeline, for investor, developer, planning and local-government work.
How it is built
We take the national monthly approvals counts that councils and certifiers report, as published by council area for each financial year on that year's boundaries, and match each council to our names. A handful of tiny or special-purpose areas with no council of ours (for example Hope Vale, Groote Archipelago and the Darwin Waterfront Precinct, 18 dwellings in all) are left out. Only new dwellings are counted: alterations, conversions and demolitions are excluded. Approvals are not completions, and a project can be approved and never built. Small areas swing a lot from month to month because one large apartment approval can dominate, so look at trends rather than single months. Latest months are provisional and can be revised.
Fields
| Field | Unit | Description |
|---|---|---|
dwellings_housesHouses approved | dwellings | New houses (detached) approved in the month. |
dwellings_other_residentialOther residential approved | dwellings | New semi-detached, row, terrace, townhouse and apartment dwellings approved in the month. |
dwellings_totalTotal new dwellings approved | dwellings | All new dwellings approved in the month (houses plus other residential). |
value_houses_kValue of houses approved | $'000 | Value of the approved new house building work, in thousands of dollars. |
value_other_residential_kValue of other residential approved | $'000 | Value of the approved new other-residential building work, in thousands of dollars. |
value_total_kValue of all new dwellings approved | $'000 | Value of all approved new residential building work, in thousands of dollars. |