Building consents up nationwide

The latest Statistics New Zealand consent data shows that new dwelling consents reached a 10-year high nationwide in November 2015.

Statistics New Zealand business indicators manager Clara Eatherley said November was traditionally a big month for residential building consents and that 2015 was no exception.

“Dwelling consents were up 17% from the year before, driven by increases for houses and retirement village units.”

A total of 2831 new dwellings were consented in November 2015, which was the highest monthly figure since March 2005.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of new dwellings consented rose 1.8% in November as compared to October.

Further, the trend for the number of new dwellings consented increased by 0.6% in November, leaving it at its highest level since July 2004.

Eatherley said the value of residential building work consented passed the billion dollar mark for the first time, coming in at $1.1 billion.

Twelve of the 16 regions consented more new dwellings in November 2015 than they had in November 2014.

While Auckland and Canterbury had the highest number of consents, it was Wellington which saw the biggest increase since last year.

Consents for new dwellings in Wellington rose to 328, which was the highest number since April 2008, and the trend increased by 5.3%.

Eatherley said an unusually high number of new dwellings were consented in the Wellington region, with a spike in consents for apartments and retirement village units.

In Auckland, 966 new dwellings were consented in November 2015, as compared to 805 in October 2015.

The trend for new dwelling consents in Auckland increased by 4.4%, in November 2015, to hit an 11 year high.

However, while the Super City may be seeing a relative increase in new dwelling consents, the story is more complex.

Westpac industry economist David Norman said Auckland’s annual residential consent figure remained practically unchanged.

“November 2015 was a big month for consents there, but so was November 2014, which now falls out of the annual analysis.

“In fact, Auckland's November consents, in seasonally adjusted terms, were down 10% compared to October.”

On top of this, he said supply remains well below the 11,000 dwellings that it is estimated Auckland needs each year to meet its long-term supply shortage.

The nationwide increase in consents was led exclusively by a jump in multi-unit (apartments and terraced housing) consents, Norman said.

“The number of houses consented in the month actually fell a fraction (0.3%) for the second month in a row.

But multi-units continued to grow in importance, up to 743 units for the months, or 31% of all dwellings consented in New Zealand.”