Home News Industry Updates March building consents hit six-year high

June 2014

March building consents hit six-year high

05 Jun 2014, Industry Updates

Upward trend for new dwellings consented continues.

Residential building consents continued to rise in March, which was the best month for house approvals in more than six years, according to Statistics New Zealand’s latest figures. The trend for new dwellings, excluding apartments, has been increasing for almost three years and is 89% higher than the most recent low-point in March 2011; however, it is still 19% below the highest point in September 2003.

Excluding apartments, the number of new dwellings rose 1.3%, with 1,813 dwellings consented in March 2014, Including apartments, there were 1,999 new dwellings consented. Of these, 186 were apartments, including 110 retirement village units.

 

New dwellings graph

 

TREND FOR NEW DWELLINGS almost doubled since march 2011

Following falls in January and February, the number of new dwellings, including apartments, rose 8.3%.

Business indications manager Neil Kelly said the trend for new dwellings has almost doubled since March 2011, but is still 28% below the peak in January 2004.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, new dwelling consents, including apartments, rose 8.3% in March, bucking the trend of the previous two months.

NEW DWELLINGS UP IN 12 REGIONS

Including apartments, 12 of the 16 regions consented more new dwellings in March 2014 than in March 2013. The areas with the greatest increases were Canterbury (up 160 to 604), Auckland (up 168 to 561, including 61 apartments) and Waikato (up 64 to 232, including 67 apartments).

Other regions that consented more dwellings included Northland, Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui,  Wellington, Marlborough, Otago and Southland. Those that didn’t were Gisborne, Nelson, Tasman and the West Coast.

Canterbury had the highest number of consents at 604, followed by Auckland at 561, which included 61 apartments, and Waikato at 232.

EARTHQUAKE-RELATED CONSENTS ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 10% OF CANTERBURY CONSENTS

Since 4 September 2010, $1.7bn worth of building consents have been identified as earthquake-related. This includes consents for 1,688 new dwellings.

For comparison, the total value of building consents in Canterbury from September 2010 to March 2014 is $8.1bn and includes consents for 14,718 new dwellings.

However, Statistics New Zealand stipulates that not all earthquake-related consents can be identified. For example, if a new house (to replace a damaged house) is built at a different site, it might not be identified as earthquake-related.

VALUE OF BUILDING WORK

In March 2014, the total value of building work consented was $1.2bn, with $800m of residential work and $422m of non-residential work.


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