Building consents trend up

Excluding apartment developments, the trend for new house consents was up 41% since March 2011, Statistics NZ said.

Compared to November 2011, there were 27% more house consents issued in November but only 39 apartment consents, down from 109 the year before.

Statistics NZ industry and labour statistics manager Blair Cardno said: “Since the latest low point in March 2011, we have seen continuous steady growth in the trend for the number of new houses consented. The trend for new houses, including apartments, has climbed 45% over the 20 months to November 2012.”

Westpac economists said consent issuance fell 5.4% in November after a 2% fall in October, but excluding apartments, consents were up 4.6% for the month.

“By region, ex-apartment dwelling consents issued in Auckland shot up another 13% after last month’s 6% increase. Auckland is now clearly over the lull in consent issuance we saw earlier in the year. By contrast consent issuance seems to have flattened off a little in the Canterbury region in recent months, though there is more of an uptrend in the outskirts of Christchurch [Selwyn and Waimakariri districts] than in Christchurch city.”