Construction rates up but not enough: Master Builders

The latest building consent figures show an increase in activity on 2011, with 1478 house and apartment consents issued in July 2012, a 26 per cent increase on the same month a year before.

There were 235 consents for apartments – the highest number since 2007.

RMBF CEO Warwick Quinn said 2011 had  the lowest level of building activity in decades and was one of the hardest years in living memory for builders.

There were only just over 13,500 new home consents issued for the year.

But since December 2011 the market had shown steady improvement so that in the seven months to July 2012 9223 new homes and apartments had been consented which, when annualised, resulted in a forecast of 15,500 - 16,000 new consents for 2012 – a 15 per cent increase on 2011.

But Quinn said consistent levels of growth were only seen in Auckland and Canterbury.

He said New Zealand was still not building enough new homes which should be in the order of 20,000 - 25,000 per annum.