Housing consents fall at the end of a strong year

Housing consents fall at the end of a strong year – Media release

9 February 2017

The number of new homes consented tailed off towards the end of 2016, but increased overall in the year, Statistics New Zealand said today.

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of new homes consented fell 7 percent in December 2016, mainly due to a drop in apartment consents.

The trend for consented homes fell 12 percent in the last five months of 2016, mainly driven by Canterbury.

However, the total number of homes consented in the year was 29,970 – up 10 percent from 2015, and the most for a calendar year since 2004.

“Residential consents continued to decline in Canterbury last year, but there was strong growth in most other regions, especially Auckland and nearby regions,” business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly
said.

In 2016, the regions that consented the most new homes were:
• Auckland – 9,930 (up 7 percent from 2015)
• Canterbury – 5,903 (down 9 percent)
• Waikato – 3,552 (up 18 percent)
• Bay of Plenty – 2,520 (up 33 percent).

Consents for houses, retirement village units, and townhouses all increased in 2016, while the number of apartments consented decreased. Houses were by far the most popular type of home consented.

To date, the Kaikoura earthquake of 14 November 2016 has not had an obvious effect on building consent statistics.

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