Focus on high-rise in Australia's housing boom

[SYDNEY] Australia is enjoying a long-desired housing renaissance as a record amount of new building gets under way, and a shift in fashion toward high-rise living should lengthen its life span even if it tempers its immediate benefits.

In the past, the focus was all on detached houses which gave a concentrated burst to economic growth of one to two percentage points over 12-18 months. Apartment towers take far longer to get approved and built, spreading the gains over several years.

That's inconvenient for the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which had hoped housing would be running hotter right now to help offset a cooling mining sector, and only adds to the case for it keeping interest rates at a record low of 2.5 per cen…