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Commercial building consents surged to an all time high of $5.9 billion last year with Auckland and Canterbury neck and neck

Property
Commercial building consents surged to an all time high of $5.9 billion last year with Auckland and Canterbury neck and neck

The value of non-residential building consents hit an all time high last year, with consents issued for $5.9 billion of non-residential building work throughout the country, compared with $5.1 billion in 2014, $4.2 billion in 2013 and $3.9 billion in 2012, according to Statistics NZ.

Non-residential consents include commercial buildings such as shops, offices, hotels and industrial buildings and also community facilities such as schools, hospitals and recreational complexes.

Of the $5.9 billion of consents issued last year, $4.4 billion (75%) was for construction of new buildings and $1.5 billion (25%) was for additions and structural alteration work to existing buildings.

The growth of consents was driven mainly by projects in Auckland and Canterbury, both of which hit all time highs for the value of non-residential consents issued last year.

In Auckland the value of non-residential consents increased for the fifth straight year in a row to hit $1.8 billion, compared to $1.5 billion in 2014.

Of that $1.3 billion (71%) was for new buildings and $543 million (29%) was for additions and alterations to existing buildings.

In Canterbury consents were issued for $1.9 billion of non-residential building work, up from $1.5 billion in 2014.

Of that $1.6 billion (86%) was for new buildings and $264 million (14%) was for additions and alterations to existing buildings.

In the Wellington region the value of non-residential consents increased for the third year in a row to hit $499.7 million, but that remained below previous highs of $550.8 million in 2009, $534 million in 2007 and $571 million in 2005.

Building additions and alteration work had a much larger share of the market in Wellington due to the need to seismically strengthen many buildings and accounted for $212 million (42%) of non-residential consents, with new buildings making up 58% ($287 million).

Non-residential consents also hit an all time high in the Bay of Plenty last year, with consents worth $298 issued, compared to $204 million in 2014 and the previous all time high of $278 million in 2006.

In other major centres, non-residential consents rose for fourth year in a row in the Waikato to hit $430 million last year, but that was still below the $449 million issued in 2010, the $437 million issued in 2009, the $442 million issued in 2008 and the all time high of $549 million issued in 2005.

In Otago additions and alteration work also play a prominent role in the region's construction market.

Of the $276.9 million of non-residential consents issued in Otago last year, $109.5 million (40%) was for additions and alterations and $167.4 million (60%) was for new buildings.

The following table gives the break-down for the types of buildings consented in each quarter of last year in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Wellington, Otago and Canterbury.

Notable features were huge increases the value of office and transport buildings, factories and educational buildings consented in Auckland in the fourth quarter of last year, while consents for retail premises showed less spectacular but steady growth throughout the year and consents for warehouses were largely flat.

In Canterbury the value of consents slumped in the fourth quarter to less than half what it was in the third quarter, with the value of consents for most types of buildings also well down in the fourth quarter compared to earlier in the year.

Value of Non-residential Building Consents Issued Q1 2015 - Q4 2015
Includes new buildings plus alteration work to existing buildings
 
Auckland Region $
  Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
Hotels, motels etc 8,250,000 33,719,000 3,732,000 4,884,533
Hospitals, other health buildings 16,833,860 41,340,158 31,485,989 23,002,250
Education buildings 47,189,612 51,187,264 55,736,573 105,858,118
Social, cultural buildings 42,466,135 24,051,500 24,570,656 19,820,841
Shops, restaurants, and bars 47,484,295 66,892,899 79,887,339 107,569,415
Office and transport buildings 86,948,272 52,728,712 83,143,359 209,356,959
Storage buildings 60,739,664 76,346,877 70,814,029 72,948,948
Factories/ industrial buildings 6,674,498 37,616,399 16,460,998 60,870,755
Total non-residential buildings 345,767,550 418,696,721 393,436,326 660,693,676
Waikato Region $
  Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
Hotels, motels etc 1,440,000 523,000 3,826,000 5,265,800
Hospitals/other health buildings 8,905,589 3,947,000 2,978,500 11,647,990
Education buildings 11,843,246 16,009,700 24,607,376 9,134,775
Social, cultural buildings 2,682,027 11,936,100 21,996,169 10,380,138
Shops, restaurants, and bars 8,337,500 21,226,200 34,493,835 11,627,465
Office/public transport buildings 9,924,176 16,796,451 7,136,000 13,023,989
Storage buildings 4,614,962 7,962,691 4,747,967 6,767,470
Factories/industrial buildings 17,879,582 30,382,625 11,915,883 14,914,889
Total non-residential buildings 77,411,063 125,439,825 123,744,053 103,007,965
Bay of Plenty Region $
  Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
Hotels, motels etc 294,000 1,959,250 109,000 285,000
Hospitals/other health buildings 2,884,710 10,366,000 970,000 10,839,000
Education buildings 8,688,584 3,044,650 14,426,395 5,811,000
Social, cultural buildings 3,192,313 604,000 3,270,600 5,529,900
Shops, restaurants, and bars 2,296,950 18,940,300 39,346,500 14,058,470
Office/public transport buildings 7,626,756 14,257,645 3,833,500 5,752,360
Storage buildings 19,381,510 16,940,000 17,211,570 18,129,927
Factories/industrial buildings 9,452,000 19,959,632 3,447,000 4,204,500
Total non-residential buildings 55,488,883 89,128,153 85,140,369 67,922,920
Wellington Region $
  Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
Hotels, motels etc 1,582,537 2,837,507 2,091,000 2,197,600
Hospitals/other health buildings 12,360,000 25,459,400 14,728,473 5,657,000
Education buildings 13,687,629 32,813,828 109,680,500 21,595,818
Social, cultural buildings 3,360,994 4,876,600 3,161,650 12,019,500
Shops, restaurants, and bars 6,675,900 8,238,000 12,216,400 8,091,000
Office/public transport buildings 44,199,250 26,854,012 18,951,672 74,074,320
Storage buildings 730,922 7,594,930 602,499 2,402,799
Factories/ industrial buildings 2,977,000 3,822,600 3,004,668 4,312,517
Total non-residential buildings 87,591,418 114,647,986 165,690,361 131,772,762
Canterbury Region $
  Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
Hotels, motels etc 4,293,200 9,442,800 7,158,000 7,838,846
Hospitals/other health buildings 50,237,522 77,222,967 105,995,640 41,299,514
Education buildings 86,470,379 37,280,500 236,950,671 59,467,334
Social, cultural buildings 37,408,267 45,651,317 44,321,068 17,274,080
Shops, restaurants, and bars 19,609,968 32,052,250 80,202,400 38,291,770
Office/public transport buildings 129,812,318 108,109,735 165,189,483 73,322,805
Storage buildings 76,130,652 37,613,353 57,530,928 40,147,600
Factories/ industrial buildings 33,648,344 16,956,289 13,784,054 40,422,740
Total non-residential buildings 459,237,153 387,382,624 729,406,347 326,218,866
Otago Region $
  Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
Hotels, motels etc 4,040,000 9,265,000 7,603,600 11,114,355
Hospitals/other health buildings 2,020,000 822,000 7,584,300 6,913,000
Education buildings 5,599,900 512,000 7,243,700 41,372,000
Social, cultural buildings 5,313,443 12,344,500 683,000 1,695,900
Shops, restaurants, and bars 6,506,000 8,472,125 29,815,500 10,086,000
Office/public transport buildings 4,626,500 7,107,970 7,284,385 12,739,000
Storage buildings 2,310,545 4,849,063 10,855,800 4,282,000
Factories/industrial buildings 5,537,500 7,847,500 2,894,799 5,826,240
Total non-residential buildings 42,799,518 56,277,589 80,730,543 97,107,095
All New Zealand $
  Q1 2015 Q2 2015 Q3 2015 Q4 2015
Hotels, motels etc 23,818,755 62,056,857 27,675,418 38,282,161
Hospitals/other health buildings 100,165,381 162,922,543 172,511,902 113,614,014
Education buildings 198,354,615 161,129,941 475,353,729 268,054,961
Social, cultural, buildings 118,491,679 116,041,517 119,336,413 87,691,046
Shops, restaurants, and bars 106,274,875 174,185,274 292,517,024 210,591,711
Office and transport buildings 298,400,184 240,652,457 302,602,662 402,740,249
Storage buildings 186,870,605 166,537,061 185,638,023 173,477,385
Factories/industrial buildings 115,043,561 165,570,521 72,796,268 155,643,745
Total non-residential buildings 1,249,678,581 1,359,460,146 1,744,069,482 1,565,788,505
Source: Statistics NZ

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