The Building Commission's 2011-12 permits report found that over $23 billion worth of permits were issued in the last financial year.
The research discovered that while that is a general 4.5 per cent decrease from the previous year it is due to a decrease in public permits for hospitals and other public buildings.
Residential permits however saw growth, which is good news for the property sector, where the value of permits rose to over $3.75 billion.
The regional areas saw growth with Geelong in regional Victoria outperforming Melbourne with a 12 per cent rise to the city's one per cent growth.
It comes as Sydney played host to the Property Council of Australia's Property Congress.
This event this week (October 29 to November 2) hosted some of the biggest names in business and politics about how to Australian urban centres and bring them forward into the 21st century.
Some notable guests included former mayor of New York City Rudolph Giuliani, property icon Sam Zell and political heavyweights in Australia including Bob Brown, Amanda Vanstone, Peter Reith and Mark Latham.
Frank Lowy was inducted into the Australian Property Hall of Fame, which recognises those who make a valuable contribution to the real estate sector and Australian society.
