Mortgage Business Apartments drag down building activity By Malavika Santhebennur 21 January 2021 Dwelling unit commencements have continued to fall but the bright spot has been new private sector houses, figures have shown. The Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Building Activity data for the September 2020 quarter has revealed that the seasonally adjusted estimate for the total number of dwelling units commenced fell 0.8 per cent. The decline was driven by the commencements of private sector other residential (units) commencements, which fell by 7.5 per cent from the June 2020 quarter, and by 2.6 per cent from the September 2019 quarter to the September 2020 quarter. This quarterly decline has followed a fall of 13.2 per cent in the June quarter.