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Building consents crash to record low 812 in January

Posted in News

Another strong signal of how the housing downturn is affecting New Zealand's economy emerged today as the number of building consents issued fell to their lowest on record in January.

There were 812 residential building consents issued in January, down from the previous 22-year low of 1,127 in December, figures from Statistics New Zealand show. There were just 14 consents issued in Wellington central and 4 consents in Nelson. The total of 812 consents was the lowest montly total since the series began in 1965.

The 28% drop in residential consents issued from December, and 53% drop from January 2008, shows clear signs that the residential construction market is under increasing pressure as credit availability dries up and the global recession continues to hit the New Zealand economy with increasing force.

There were 67 apartment units granted building consent in January and 745 other dwellings consents issued. The value of dwelling consents fell 48% from January last year, to NZ$233 million.

In Central Auckland, there were 46 consents issued (down 77% from January 2008, and 36% from December); 14 in Wellington (down 67% and 36%; and 59 in Christchurch (down 50% and 29%).

We welcome your help to improve our coverage of this issue. Any examples or experiences to relate? Any links to other news, data or research to shed more light on this? Any insight or views on what might happen next or what should happen next? Any errors to correct?

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1 Comments

How much more of this

How much more of this unnecessary nonsense are you prepared to take?

Dont you think its about time the Local Government sector was sorted out properly?

Hugh Pavletich
www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org
Christchurch
New Zealand

Hear, hear, Hugh Pavletich. Keep

Hear, hear, Hugh Pavletich. Keep the pressure on the bastards.

Now here's a thought. We could build our way out of depression, another idea of John Maynard Keynes, that funnily enough, the world's political leaders seem anxious to ignore. We could free up enormous amounts of land, cancel the burdensome fees and development contributions, and get our building industry cranking up again and re-employing their people. Banks would leap at the opportunity to finance the purchase of houses that are a realistic price, like, say, $180,000 each.

You want stimulus? Guess what? It is possible to have stimulus without it costing the taxpayer anything. While we are about it, we could revisit the idea of turning more of our natural resources into cash instead of locking them away for the alleged benefit of future generations. Hey, what's beneficial about handing the future generations a colossal monetary debt because we "stimulated" the economy by spending money we didn't have on "make-work" projects and pork?

Hugh's unselfish crusade will succeed

Hugh's unselfish crusade will succeed sooner than later. All old failed policies will be revised because economies of the developed world have already start thinking inward than outward.

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