Building consents continue upward trend

Statistics New Zealand’s latest figures show residential building consents were up 37% in May, and worth $532 million.

Industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said it was the highest value of residential building consents issued in any May since 2008.

“The number of new housing approvals also rose this month to its highest level for a May month since 2008.”

Consents were issued for 1372 new houses, including apartments, a 20 per cent increase on May 2011. Sixty-eight of those were apartments.

After removing seasonal fluctuations, there was a drop in the number of new houses in May 2012 compared to April.  Consents are volatile – a big increase in March was put down to people submitting plans before the building regulations changed.

Over the year, the trend has been toward increasing numbers of residential consents, both including and excluding apartments.

Auckland had the biggest increase in new houses on the year before, with 125 more. Canterbury also had a big rise, although most of the consents were for houses outside Christchurch city.

Earthquake-related consents were worth $47 million in May 2012, the second-highest total since the earthquakes began in 2010.