March consents smash past 50,000

Stats NZ figures reveal that the year ending March 2022 passed three never-been-seen before milestones

March 2022 set three records – the highest number of consents in one month, the highest number of homes consented in a 12-month period and the first time in a 12-month period that more multi-unit homes were consented than stand-alone houses.

“The number of multi-unit homes consented has steadily increased over the past decade, but this is the first 12-month period where there have been more multi-unit homes consented than stand-alone houses,” said Stats NZ Construction and Property Statistics Manager Michael Heslop.

A record 50,858 new homes were consented in the year ended March 2022, an increase of 24% from the year ended March 2020.

“The year ended March 2022 marks the first time the annual number of building consents has passed the 50,000 mark,” added Heslop.

There were 5,303 new homes consented in March 2022 – the highest number on record. Of those, 3,000 were multi-unit homes and 2,303 were stand-alone houses. Of the multi-unit homes, there were 2,172 townhouses, flats and units, 616 apartments and 212 retirement village units.

After a massive seasonally adjusted rise of 12.2% in February 2022, the seasonally adjusted number of new homes rose by a smaller 5.8% in March 2022.

Record-breaking regions

Record breaking wasn’t limited to the number of consents as four regions joined the club with record numbers of new homes consented in the year ended March 2022.

Auckland broke the 20,000 mark with 21,477 (a 23% increase compared with the year ended March 2021). Wellington (with a 26% increase to 3,836), Canterbury (with a 41% increase to 8,557) and Otago (with a 34% increase to 2,506) also set new bests.

New homes consented per 1,000 residents across New Zealand was 9.9, up from eight in the year ended March 2021.

Among the biggest homes-per-person increases was Canterbury, whose construction boom was characterised by its rise of 9.4 to 13.2. Three other areas passed double digits for new homes consented per 1,000 residents. They were:

• Auckland with 12.5.
• Otago with 10.2.
• Waikato with 10.1.

Boom extends to non-residential building consents

In the year ended March 2022, non-residential building consents totalled $8.5bn, up 14% from the year ended March 2021. The building types with the highest value were:

• Education buildings – $1.5bn (up 11%).
• Factories – $1.2bn (up 27%).
• Storage buildings – $1.2bn (up 15%).