Trend for new dwelling consents continues to rise

Residential consents fell 5% from March; however, year-on-year numbers are up 21%

Building consent applications are at a seven-year high after a 1.5% increase in April, according to Statistics New Zealand’s latest figures.

“The trend for new dwellings has doubled since the low point in March 2011, but is still 27% below the series peak in January 2004,” said business indicators manager Neil Kelly.

In April, there were 2,082 new dwellings consented, up 19% from the same month last year and up 1.5% from March.

This figure included 432 apartments – above 400 for the third time in six months.

However, excluding apartments, the seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings consented fell 5.2% from March.

In the year ended April 30, there were 22,693 new residential consents issued, up 21% from 2013. These consents had a total value of just under $7bn, up from $5.4bn last year. Auckland drove the increase in April with 697 (including 241 apartments), followed by Canterbury with 554 (including 40 apartments) and the Waikato with 261 (including 69 apartments). Eight of the 16 regions consented more new dwellings, including Hawke’s Bay, Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui, West Coast and Southland.

Those that didn’t were Northland, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne, Tasman, Nelson, Marlborough, Otago and Wellington. The greatest decrease was in Wellington, which was down 89 (including 87 less apartments).

This was a reversal of the figures for March, when Canterbury outstripped Auckland’s building activity with 604 consents compared to 561.
Auckland’s rate of building consents will need to pick up if it is to reach its target of 39,000 new homes over the next three years.

A total of $1.1bn of building work was consented in April, with $739m of residential work and $401m of non-residential work.