September consents up nearly 10%

The year ended September 2022 saw a 7% increase in the annual number of new homes consented compared to the year ended September 2021

There were 50,732 homes consented in the year ended September 2022 – more than half of which were multi-unit homes.

“Multi-unit homes accounted for 55% of new homes consented in the year ended September 2022, rising from 46% in the year ended September 2021,” Construction and Property Statistics Manager Michael Heslop said.

In the month of September 2022 there were 4,600 new homes consented nationally – a 1.7% increase on September 2021. There were 1,848 stand-alone houses and 2,752 multi-unit homes consented.

September’s figure represents a small increase on August 2022, which saw 4,547 new dwellings consented.

“Multi-unit homes have kept home consents at high levels, despite a drop in the number of stand-alone houses,” said Heslop.

Regional ups and downs

Auckland and Canterbury broke records for the highest number of new dwellings consented in the year ended September 2022 compared to the year ended September 2021 – with 21,985 (up 11%) and 8,718 (up 20%) new homes consented respectively.

According to Heslop, Auckland’s gain can be put down to the increased popularity of multi-unit homes.

“In Auckland, multi-unit homes accounted for three quarters of homes consented in the latest year,” he said.

There were also big gains for Wellington (3,819 or 10% more new homes) while Waikato consented 3% less homes in the year ended September 2022 (4,915) compared to the year ended September 2021.

The seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented in the year ended September 2022 rose 3.8% compared with the year ended September 2021. This increase followed a seasonally adjusted fall of 1.6% in August 2022.

Canterbury continues to boom

New homes consented per 1,000 residents across New Zealand in the year ended September 2022 was 9.9, up from 9.3 in the year ended September 2021.

Among the biggest increases were Canterbury, which rose from 11.3 homes consented per 1,000 residents to 13.3, and Auckland (11.7 to 13). Conversely, Waikato (10 to 9.6), Hawke’s Bay (6.2 to 4.6) and Bay of Plenty (7.4 to 6.6) suffered drops.

Non-residential building consents climb continues

In the year ended September 2022, non-residential building consents totalled $9.4bn, up 19% from the year ended September 2021.

The building types with the highest value were:

• Offices, administration and public transport buildings – $1.6 billion (up 53%).
• Education buildings – $1.5bn (up 2.8%).
• Storage buildings – $1.5bn (up 54%).