Government figures revealed planning permission for 866,000 privately-owned housing units was granted in October.
This was down 2.7% on the previous month, but up 29.8% on October 2011 when 667,000 permits were issued. The number of housing starts in October was up 3.6% to 849,000 from September and 42% ahead of 630,000 in October 2011.
Housing completions in October were 14.5% above September at 772,000 and 33.6% ahead of October 2011.
