Apartments boost monthly dwelling trends to highest level since January 2008

The trend for new houses continues to increase, albeit at a slower rate.

The number of building consents issued for apartments in November 2013 was the highest in almost five years, leading to an 11% rise for new dwellings overall.

Across the country, November saw 1775 new home consents and 492 apartments, of which 61 were retirement village units.

However, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said apartment numbers usually fluctuate from month to month.

New dwelling trend continues to ease

The monthly trend for new dwellings, excluding apartments, continues to ease and has only increased slightly in recent months. The seasonally adjusted SNZ figures for November, released in January, show that the number of new houses approved fell 0.5%.

However, it is still at its highest level since March 2008, 65% higher than its most recent low point in March 2011 yet 35% below its peak in September 2003.

Apartments boost overall consents

The trend for new dwellings, including apartments, rose 11% – driven up significantly by the 492 apartments consented in November. Three regions – Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch – accounted for most of these. This trend is now at its highest level since January 2008, and is 80% higher than March 2011. However, it is still 35% below its peak in January 2004.

Auckland accounted for 34% of the consented dwellings in November, while Canterbury accounted for 24%.

Half the regions consent more new dwellings than in 2012

Excluding apartments, eight of the 16 regions consented more new dwellings in November 2013 than in November 2012. Led by Canterbury (up 87 to 482), then Auckland (up 79 to 511), followed by Waikato (up 51 to 221), the other regions who also saw an increase were Northland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay and the West Coast.

Value of building work

The unadjusted value of building work consented in November 2013 was almost $1.1bn. This consisted of $798m of residential work and $289m of non-residential work.

The largest contributors to non-residential work, by value, were education buildings ($68m and accounting for 23% of all non-residential buildings), shops, restaurants and taverns ($49m and accounting for 17% of all non-residential buildings) and offices and administration buildings ($41m and accounting for 14% of all non-residential buildings).

Canterbury earthquake-related consents

Quake-related building consents were valued at $40m in November 2013 – $36m for residential and $4m for non-residential – and included 64 new dwellings. This is down $19m from November 2012 and $22m from October 2013. The value of earthquake-related consents since 4 September 2010 is $1.38bn.