NZ building consents down in July as fewer apartments, townhouses built in Auckland

Wednesday 30th August 2017

New Zealand residential building consents fell in July, with the biggest decreases coming from Auckland, although more stand-alone houses were consented.

Some 2,762 new houses, apartments, townhouses, retirement village units and flats were consented in July, down 1.7 percent from a year earlier. Of that total, 1,900 houses were consented, up 7.9 percent from July 2016, while consents for apartments fell 14 percent to 367 and consents for townhouses, flats and units dropped 20 percent to 350. Retirement village unit consents declined 23 percent to 145. Still, 30,404 were consented in the year ended July 30, up 4.5 percent from the previous year, Statistics NZ said today.

"Auckland region had the largest fall in July 2017, with 313 fewer new homes consented compared with July 2016 (down 29 percent to 774 new homes consented)," Stats NZ said. "The fall was driven by decreases in the volatile apartment and townhouse categories. Auckland’s numbers are quite volatile because almost half the homes consented are in multi-unit projects. On average, the region currently consents over 800 new homes a month."

In seasonally adjusted terms, dwelling consents fell 0.7 percent on the month in July after dropping 1 percent in June.

New Zealand's housing market has been on a tear with demand outstripping supply and pushing up values. In Auckland, the country's largest city, the lack of housing supply has been most acute as record migration drives demand.

Including alterations, $1.8 billion of building work was consented in the month of July, Stats NZ said. That included $1.2 billion worth of residential buildings and $576 million for non-residential buildings.

(BusinessDesk)

Comments from our readers

No comments yet