Building drop fuels fears for economy

Consents for new homes and apartments dropped to 2296 last month from 2347 in July, and were down from 2704 at the same time last year, Statistics New Zealand figures showed.

The number of consents for new houses and apartments has been falling since January after increasing for most of 2003. Excluding apartments, housing consents have been on a downward slide since November 2003.

Ten out of 16 regions recorded fewer consents last month than a year ago with Auckland recording the biggest drop, down from 1031 in August 2003 to 780 last month. Wellington's consents were down to 132 last month from 293 at the same time last year.

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