"Rumours of the death of the home building sector are widely exaggerated," says Craig James, chief economist CommSec. 

In June, almost 214,000 new homes were under construction, down only 3.4 per cent from the all-time high of nearly 221,000 homes reached in September last year.

"Until five years ago, the most apartments being built in NSW at any one time was 25,000. It is now 64,000," writes James.

Overall, dwelling commencements rose 1.2 per cent in the June quarter. House starts rose by 3.3 per cent and apartments fell by 0.8 per cent.

Work started on 219,029 new dwellings over the year to June 2017, down 6.5 per cent from the record high of 234,350 dwellings in the year to June 2016.

State by state, building starts in the June quarter fell in four states/territories: Victoria (down by 8.9 per cent), Western Australia (down by 5.0 per cent), Northern Territory (down by 21.1 per cent), and Tasmania (down by 0.2 per cent).

Building starts rose in: NSW (up by 7.1 per cent); Queensland (up by 0.6 per cent); South Australia (up by 32.4 per cent); and the ACT (up 28.7 per cent).

Continued strong population growth in many states will support the sustained high rates of new construction.

"The stand-out is the huge number of apartments being built in NSW, largely across the Sydney region. The shape of the city is being changed each day," says James.

Read the ABS data here.

Read more about new home construction:

New home building stalled in May

Slow down in housing hits GDP

Construction of apartments overtook houses in December quarter