The number of housing-finance approvals in Australia rose a seasonally adjusted 2.2% in May from April, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said. Economists surveyed ahead of the announcement on average had expected a rise of 1.5% in May.
The value of investment housing loans in May rose 2.4% from April.
The bureau said its trend estimate for the number of housing-finance approvals, which further smoothes seasonally adjusted data, rose 2.2% in May from April.
In a breakdown of the data, the bureau said the number of finance approvals to build houses rose a seasonally adjusted 8.0% in May from April and the number of approvals to buy newly built houses rose 2.9%.
The number of approvals for the purchase of established houses increased 1.5%.