to the first decade of this century, but not as much as during the boom in apartment building in the second half of the 2010s. this is likely to still be enough to keep the housing stock growing faster than the population. solid rates of home - building have been encouraged by a range of public policy measures, including the low level of interest rates. also important has been the raft of subsidies and other incentives for home construction, as well as support for first home buyers during the pandemic. in combination, these subsidies have been quite sizeable in some cases ( graph 5 ). graph 5 maximum grants available * new home construction $ ’ 000 new south wales victoria % $ ’ 000 queensland western australia % h2 2020 homebuilder ( lhs ) first home owner grant ( lhs ) h2 2020 other * * ( lhs ) per cent of median housing price * * * ( rhs ) * subject to eligibility criteria including first - home - buyer status, income and property price caps. * * other includes regional bonuses in victoria and queensland, and the western australian building bonus grant. * * * median price of all new and established dwellings at the end of the reference period. sources : corelogic ; federal and state governments ; rba it is difficult to disentangle how much of the increase in demand for housing has reflected temporary subsidies and the current low level of mortgage rates versus the shift in preferences. however, it is clear that the time - limited nature of homebuilder and some other subsidies induced a temporary surge in building approvals for detached homes and renovations ( graph 6 ). we estimate that about one - quarter of building approvals during this period were supported by homebuilder, though many of these would have happened anyway. graph 6 private residential building approvals * monthly ’ 000 detached ’ 000 new dwellings higher - density $ b $ b alterations & additions 1. 0 1. 0 $ 25, 000 * * 0. 8 0. 8 0. 6 0. 4 0. 6 $ 15, 000 * * * * * 0. 4 smoothed lines are 13 - period henderson trends. grant value by phase of the homebuilder program. sources : abs ; rba even now, after eligibility for these subsidies has closed, these categories of building approvals have remained higher than immediately before the pandemic. this suggests that the extra demand induced by the subsidies wasn't entirely pulled forward from this year and next year, which would

chairman, the effects of these nefarious activities on financial institutions and their stakeholders as well as on the national economy can be devastating and the vulnerability of banks to such fraud has been heightened by technological advancements. its economic cost can be huge in terms of its disruption of the workings of the market, financial institutions, and the payment system. besides, fraud can be a very potent force in terms of its impact on confidence in the banking system ; damages to the integrity and stability of the economy ; it can collapse banks ( like bcci and ghana co - operative bank ), undermine the central bank ’ s supervisory role and even create social unrest and discontent and political upheavals for government. the pyram and resources 5 ( r5 ) episodes in the late 1990s testify to this. the negative list of financial fraud can be endless. it is for this reason that some commentators have concluded that “ fraud prevention is as important as prudential supervisions ”. mr. chairman, since ghana ’ s independence in 1957, the key organs of the state, namely policymakers, law - makers and the courts as well as the financial regulators have taken various measures within their respective spheres of power to deal with all forms of fraudulent activities. some of the measures taken include : • the passing of the criminal code, 1960 ( act 29 ), as amended, to deal with fraud, dud cheques, forgery, etc. ; • the internal revenue act, 2000 ( act 592 ) that controls tax evasion ; • customs, excise and preventive services ( management ) act 1993 ( pndcl. 30 ) which concerns evasion of duties ; the banking act, 2004 ( act 673 ) that contains some provisions intended to prevent bank fraud ; and the serious fraud office act, 1993 ( act 466 ) empowers sfo to monitor, investigate and prosecute offences involving serious financial or economic loss to the state, where the state has an interest in the entity. within the last decade or so the nature and methods of financial fraud in ghana and globally have changed, as a result of the advent of new criminal activities and new technology which facilitates easier and faster transfer of laundered money, that could be used to finance suspicious activities. at the executive / legislative and the central bank levels, new moves have been taken to combat financial fraud. at the governmental level for example new laws have been passed to deal with the new challenges. the laws include : the public procurement