Consents drop 25%

The year ended December 2023 saw consents drop by a quarter year-on-year – well below the figure of 49,538 recorded in the year ended December 2022

In the year ended December 2023, 37,239 new homes were consented – 25% less than in the same period the previous year. Of the new homes consented, there were 21,564 multi-unit homes (-23% year-on-year) and 15,675 stand-alone houses (-27%). Of the multi-unit homes, 16,779 were townhouses, flats and units (-19%), 2,518 apartments (-43%) and 2,267 retirement village units (-23%).

Construction and Property Statistics Manager Michael Heslop said that, while multi-unit home consent numbers remained at historic levels, one building type had fallen to record lows.

“The number of apartments consented in 2023 was the lowest since 2016, when 2,403 were consented,” Heslop said.

“2023 was the first year that the number of townhouses, flats, and units consented exceeded the number of stand-alone houses.”

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of new homes consented in the year to December 2023 fell by 3.4%, following an 11% seasonally adjusted fall in November 2023.

Cyclone-affected areas buck the trend

Only two regions consented more dwellings in the year ended December 2023 compared to the previous year, as Hawke’s Bay (822 vs 769) and Gisborne (183 vs 162) bucked nationwide trends.

The four regions with the most consents issued were Auckland (15,488; -27%), Canterbury (6,959; -22%) Waikato (3,548; -25%) and Wellington (2,427; -37%), though all experienced declines compared with the year ended December2022.

Month on month drop consistent

There were 2,487 new homes consented in the month of December 2023 – a drop of 18% compared to the month of December 2022, which consented 3,457 new dwellings.

In December 2023, there were 1,095 stand-alone homes consented; a 20.5% reduction compared to December 2022, which consented 1,837 stand-alone homes. There was also a 33% reduction in the amount of multi-unit homes consented from 2,079 to 1,392.

Consents down per 1,000 residents

In terms of dwellings consented per 1,000 residents, the figures for the year ended December 2023 declined compared with the year ended December 2022 (7.2 vs 9.7).

Three regions consented above national levels: Auckland (8.9 vs 12.6), Otago (7.7 vs 9.7) and Canterbury (10.4 vs 13.6.)

Non-residential building consents up

In the year ended December 2023, non-residential building consents totalled $9.4bn, down 1% from the year ended December 2022. The building types with the highest value were:

• Offices, administration and public transport buildings – $1.5bn (-14%).
• Storage buildings – $1.5bn (-1.3%).
• Hospitals, nursing homes, and health buildings – $1.3bn (-2.2%).