Building Consents Issued: January 2000 - Stats NZ

Building Consents Issued: January 2000

Education Boosts Non-residential Buildings, Residential Buildings Decline

In January 2000 consents of $51 million were issued for education buildings. This is the highest for this building type for over a year and is partially attributable to several multi-million dollar consents.

Also contributing to the high total were consents for new schools and a large assortment of new classrooms and specialty buildings such as halls, labs and technology buildings. Education buildings made up the largest proportion of the non-residential total of $159.6 million. Although this total is lower than in the previous two months, the underlying trend is still increasing. Apart from education buildings, all other non-residential buiding types recorded a monthly total of less than $23 million each.

The underlying trend for the number of new dwellings is declining for the sixth month. The all buildings trend has remained stable with little movement over the last five months. The number of new dwellings authorised in January was 1,527. Rising interest rates and a downturn in the real estate market may have exacerbated the usual seasonal fall in the January total. The total value of residential building consents was $259.7 million and includes alterations, additions and outbuildings.

The number of apartment units authorised was 275. One hundred and twenty seven of these were in Waitakere, with the remainder being spread over Auckland City, North Shore and Lower Hutt. Following an apartment building boom in the middle two quarters of 1999 the number of apartment units authorised has dropped significantly over the last four months.

The closure of council offices over the new year period tends to have a negative impact on the level of consents issued for both residential and non-residential building projects.

Len Cook
Government Statistician
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