October consents back to 2021 levels

The year ended October 2023 saw consents drop to similar levels to 2021 with 39,900 new homes consented.

The year ended October 2023 saw a 21% drop in consents compared to the year ended October 2022 with 39,900 homes consented – close to the figure set in the year ended September 2023 with 40,408. Of the new homes consented, there were 23,567 multi-unit homes (-16% compared with the year ended October 2022) and 16,333 stand-alone houses (-26%). Of the multi-unit homes, 17,605 were townhouses, flats and units (-16%), 3,229 apartments (-25%) and 2,733 retirement village units (-3.1%).

Construction and Property Statistics Manager Michael Heslop said the figures have dropped to levels last seen two years ago.

“The annual number of new homes consented has continued to decrease from its peak of 51,015 in the year ended May 2022,” Heslop said.

“The number of new homes consented in the year ended October 2023 is now at a similar level to early 2021.”

Only two regions consented more dwellings in the year ended October 2023 compared to the previous year, with Marlborough (289 vs 251) and Gisborne (195 vs 165) bucking nationwide trends.

The four regions with the most consents issued were Auckland (16,669 -24%), Canterbury (7,250; -17%) Waikato (3,737; -24%) and Wellington (3,114; -16%), which all experienced declines compared with the year ended October 2022.

Monthly consents drop

There were 3,060 new homes consented in the month of October 2023 – a drop of 14% compared to the month of October 2022, which consented 3,568 new dwellings.

In October 2023, there were 1,255 stand-alone homes consented; an 18.6% reduction compared to October 2022, which consented 1,541 stand-alone homes. There was also an 11% reduction in the amount of multi-unit homes consented – from 2,027 to 1,805.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of new homes consented in October 2023 rose 8.7% compared with the September 2023, following a 4.6% seasonally adjusted fall in September 2023.

Consents per 1,000 slow down

In terms of dwellings consented per 1,000 residents, the figures for the year ended October 2023 (7.7) declined compared with the year ended October 2022 (9.8).

Only two regions – Marlborough (5.4; up from 4.8) and Gisborne (3.7; up from 3.2) – consented more dwellings per 1,000 residents in the year ended October 2023 compared to the year ended October 2022.

Canterbury (10.9; down from 13.3) and Auckland (9.6; down from 13) maintained above-average levels of consents per 1,000 residents, despite experiencing downward trends.

Non-residential building consents up

In the year ended October 2023, non-residential building consents totalled $9.7bn, up 3% from the year ended October 2022. The building types with the highest value were:

• Hospitals, nursing homes, and health buildings – $1.5bn (+ 31%).
• Storage buildings – $1.5bn (-5%).
• Offices, administration and public transport buildings Storage buildings – $1.4bn (-18%).