A 34 per cent leap in apartments, townhouses and semidetached homes pushed new housing approvals to their highest monthly total in a year-and-a-half in July, the first month of national cabinet’s five-year target of building 1.2 million new homes.

But even as the volatile monthly figures – which can vary from month to month based on the timing of individual project approvals – lifted the July total to 14,797, the national run rate of new housing approvals, a leading indicator of activity, fell below the needed target.