More consents issued

Building consents continued their steady upward trend in the month, boosted by a big increase in the number of apartments consented.

Including apartments, the number of consents issued increased 8.3% in March. Apartment consents rose from a below-average 66 to an above-average 186.

Apartment consents figures tend to be very volatile.

Excluding apartments, consents rose by 1.3%.

The growth in ex-apartment consents was dominated by the Canterbury region, which saw a 6% jump to about 600 consents in seasonally-adjusted terms.

In Christchurch City itself there were a record 400 consents, compared to the previous high of 350 last December.

The value of non-residential building consents rose to $422 million in March, the highest in six months.

The main contributor was a lift in office buildings in Auckland. 

In unadjusted terms, 1,999 new dwellings were consented. This comprised:
• 186 apartments, including 110 retirement village units
• 1,813 houses (the highest number since November 2007).

The regions that consented the most new dwellings were:
• Canterbury – 604
• Auckland – 561 (including 61 apartments)
• Waikato – 232 (including 67 apartments).

A total of $1.2 billion of building work was consented in March, with $800 million of residential work and $422 million of non-residential work.

“The trend for new dwellings has almost doubled since March 2011, but is still 28% below the series peak in January 2004,” Statistics NZ business indicators manager Neil Kelly said.