Auckland building consents increase

The latest Statistics New Zealand consent data shows that Auckland consented 805 new dwellings in October 2015.

This was up by 162 on the 643 new dwellings consented in September 2015 and up by 214 on the 591 new dwellings consented in October 2014.

Business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said dwelling consents were well above the historical average in Auckland.

“Auckland dwelling consents have continued to increase.”

In fact, the city’s consents trend is approaching an 11-year high: it is now at its highest level since December 2004.

Westpac industry economist David Norman said the data shows that residential building in Auckland continues to gather steam.

Total residential dwelling consents over the last 12 months in Auckland have now reached 8,935, he noted.

“Nevertheless, we would suggest that this is still around 2,000 dwellings a year below what needs to be delivered in Auckland to begin to make in-roads into the housing shortfall there."

Much of October’s growth was driven by another surge in new apartments and terraced houses, which were up nearly 120 over last month, Norman said.

Around the rest of New Zealand, the consent trend is on the rise too.

Nationally, 2349 new dwellings were consented in October 2015. This was an increase of 197 (9.2%) on October 2014.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of new dwellings consented increased by 5.1% in October.

This was still down from the 20% surge in July, but up on the falls of 5.7% in September and 5.3% in August.

According to Statistics New Zealand, the national trend is increasing, and is at its highest level since July 2004.

While consents in Canterbury have tapered off and come down about 10% from its peak in August 2014, the trend is still almost twice as high as the series average prior to the 2010/11 earthquakes.

In the Wellington region, the consents trend is showing signs of decreasing.

However, the data shows that trends for Waikato and the rest of the North Island appear to be increasing.

Two regions close to Auckland have had particularly large increases as compared to October 2014: Waikato consented 259 new dwellings (up 65) and Bay of Plenty consented 205 (up 85).