Auckland completions on the up

The number of new homes being completed in Auckland remains high, though consent numbers are dropping from their 2022 peak

According to Auckland City Council, 1,189 dwellings were issued a Code Compliance Certificate (CCC) in April 2023 – 561 more than April 2022. That number is an increase from April 2021 (990) and 2020 (910), which reflects increased consent numbers over the past 24 months.

A dwelling is granted a CCC when it’s completed, which makes it a good indicator of how many consents turn into liveable homes.

April 2023’s figures show that building activity has been strong in the 12 months prior to April this year. In fact, building activity has been strong throughout the first quarter of 2023 – reflected by high CCC numbers for February (1,012) and March (1,231). 

The year ended April 2023 saw the most CCCs issued in the same time period over the past three years, with 14,691. In the year ended April 2020, 14,650 dwellings were issued CCCs, in the year ended April 2021, there were 13,209 and, in the year ended April 2022 there were 13,059. 

Strong completion timeframes

Most (77%) of the homes issued a CCC in April 2023 were completed within two years. Out of 1,189, only 137 took longer than two years – with nine taking longer than four years. 

This was down from April 2022, which saw 86% of CCCs issued to dwellings completed within two years of a consent being granted. However, there were also 19 dwellings that took longer than four years to complete.

Buoyant CCC numbers contrast with the declining consent numbers for the Auckland region during Q1 2023. During the first quarter of 2023, there was a 19.2% drop in Auckland’s consents compared to the first quarter of 2022. The total number of consents issued in Q1 2023 was 4,167 – while there were 5,156 issued in Q1 2022.

When the CCC numbers were made public, Interest.co.nz’s property editor Greg Ninness suggested the numbers indicate that Auckland’s building industry will remain busy while consents are high.

“The high CCC numbers suggest building companies and their suppliers will have been kept busy with residential work already in the pipeline, but may find it more difficult to find new projects to take on as existing ones are completed.

“However, some of the slack created by the downturn in consents is likely to have been taken up by post cyclone recovery work, which could make the economic effects of the pending downturn slower to show up in areas such as employment.”

Mixed consent numbers

In terms of month-by-month consents, results have been mixed. Auckland consented 5% less dwellings in the year ended March 2023 compared to the previous year (20,312); however, the numbers for the year ended January (21,163) and February (20,811) increased slightly compared to the year ended 2022.

There were also less consents issued in April 2023 (1,331) compared to the past two years. In April 2022, there were 1,614 consents issued, slightly down from the 1,623 consents issued in 2021. However, April 2020 experienced the lowest consent number for three years with 894 consents issued.

The majority of June 2020’s dwellings have now had CCCs issued, but, with consent numbers only slightly down, Auckland’s builders have some work in the pipeline as New Zealand officially enters recession.