Average homebuilding cost hits $1021/m² as August consent number slips

For the August year, consents totalled 32,169, up 8.8% on the previous year and the biggest total for an August year since 1974.

For the month, however, consents were down 15.1% to 2296. Apartment consents fell 9.6% to 284.

The Statistics NZ figures show some signs of contraction, others of expansion.

While the number of consents for the month fell, the average cost of a new home rose 11.1% to $190,854 (excluding land). The average dwelling area rose 4.8% to 186.85m², but the overall area covered by new consents fell by 11%.

And although the overall value of the month’s consents for new dwellings was down 5.6% to $438 million, the average cost/m² was 6% higher than a year ago at $1021.45.

For the year to August, everything is still up – the falls in various aspects over recent months will take a few months to flow through to a general downward trend.

The average new home cost for the whole year was 9.4% higher at $182,455, the average size of dwelling was 2.4% larger at 182.07m², the cost of building topped the $1000/m² mark for the whole year with a 6.8% rise to $1001.95/m² and the total value of all new dwelling consents was 19.1% higher than the previous year at $5.87 billion.

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