New dwelling consents particularly strong in Auckland although there's been a slide in the number of retirement village units being consented

There seems to be no slow down in enthusiasm to build new homes, with the number of new dwelling consents issued in the three months to July running at its highest level since the 1970s.

According to Statistics NZ, the number of new dwelling consents issued throughout the country dipped from 3285 in February to 2915 in March and 2174 in April as lockdown Level 4 bit hard.

But numbers then recovered quickly, rising to 3562 in May, and sliding back slightly to 3477 in June and 3391 in July.

Over the three months to July 10,430 new dwelling consents were issued throughout the country, which according to Statistics NZ was the most in any three month period since the 1970s.

The decline of dwelling consents issued in July was mainly due to fewer retirement village units being consented, while consents for stand alone houses and apartments were up compared to June and the number of townhouses and units consented were down very slightly compared to June.

Stand alone house houses remain by far the most popular type of new dwelling, with 1938 consented throughout the country in July, followed by 1030 townhouses and units, 288 apartments and 135 retirement village units.

The number of new homes being consented since the Level 4 lockdown has been particularly strong in Auckland, rising from 894 in April to 1367 in May, 1439 in June and 1569 in July, which was the highest number of dwellings consented in any month in Auckland since records on Statistics NZ's publicly searchable database began in 1990..

However, new dwelling consents in Wellington and Canterbury in July were both well down on the numbers in May and June.

In the 12 months to the end of July, 37,585 new dwelling consents were issued throughout the country, up 6% on the previous 12 months.

The interactive chart below tracks the number of new dwelling consents issued monthly in each region.

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