For the first three months of this financial year, there were 77 new residential dwellings approved in Warrnambool.

In 2020-21 financial year, there were 407 new homes approved - double the previous year where 204 homes were given the go ahead.

Of the 407 homes approved, 322 were houses and the rest were other residential buildings including flats, units or apartments.

Residential housing permit approvals for new builds and extensions so far this calendar year was worth about $84 million, according to Victorian Building Authority data.

If you include commercial and industrial permit approvals for new projects and additions, that figure is about $200 million with a number of larger project under way across the city such as the new library and medical centre at Lyndoch Living.

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The city council's director of city growth Andrew Paton said that of the 77 new properties approved in the September quarter, 10 were townhouses or units.

"There remains a steady level of activity for planning applications for this type of housing which supports housing diversity and choice," Mr Paton said.

"This most recent quarterly result builds on the record level of 407 new dwellings approved in the previous financial year 2020/21 and suggests the volume of housing approvals through 2021/22 will continue to exceed long-term historical trends."

Earlier this year councillor Ben Blain described the workload for the council's planning department as like doing "a year's worth of work in six months".

Mr Paton said the current level of planning applications continued to exceed historical levels of activity.

The latest data showing how long it takes on average for a permit to be approved in Warrnambool is tracking similar to previous years with the city in 2019-20 the top performing regional council in Victoria.

In that year it took 35 days on average for a permit to be approved compared to 42 in Horsham and 83 in Geelong.

Mr Paton said record levels of new housing activity last financial year suggested Warrnambool would continue to record strong population growth.

New data on Warrnambool's population is expected early next year, but until now the city was growing by about one per cent each year - something that has contributed to residential building activity and construction jobs, the council says.

While a number of regional Victorian cities are growing at a faster rate, such as Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo, Warrnambool's growth has been seen by the council as "manageable".

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