"High construction costs and labour shortages is (sic) causing approvals for new dwellings to fall across Australia, according to housing experts."

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed house and apartment approvals in August fell 6.1 per cent to 13,991 compared with July.

The ABS said the result was driven by a 16.5 per cent drop in approvals for middle to high density homes, such as apartments and units.

CoreLogic head of research Tim Lawless told the ABC that approvals for multi-unit developments was about 18 per cent below average.

Mr Lawless said apartment building construction was becoming increasingly costly for developers and builders.

He said a tight labour market, competition with big construction projects and costly building materials often made it unfeasible for developers to build.

"Construction costs have risen by more than 30 per cent over the past four to five years, so that in itself has really compressed profit margins," he said.

"Labour markets for building trades are extraordinarily tight … and there's also a lot of competition with the non-residential sector."

The data showed approvals for detached homes have risen by 0.5 per cent, but Mr Lawless said that increase was still "sluggish".

"At the moment we're seeing total dwelling approvals that are tracking at 13,000 to 14,000 a month … so we're nowhere near that run rate target [of 20,000]."

https://www.grammarcheck.net/editor/

sic¹

/sɪk/

adverb

1. used in brackets after a copied or quoted word that appears odd or erroneous to show that the word is quoted exactly as it stands in the original
2. What is sic short for?

   “Sic” is a Latin word, and specifically, a Latin adverb, which means “thus” or “so.” It abbreviates a longer Latin phrase, “sic erat scriptum,” which means, “thus had it  been written.”