The residential construction sector is going form strength to strength with the number of new dwellings consented hitting an all time high of 41,028 in the 12 months to the end of March, according to Statistics New Zealand.
That was up 9.1% compared to the previous 12 months.
The previous high for any 12 month period was in the year to February 1974 when 40,025 new dwellings were consented.
The number of new dwellings consented in the month of March was also an all time high of 4218.
The only other time the number of new of homes consented in any single month was more than 4000 was in October 1973, when 4081 new dwelling consents were issued (the interactive chart below shows the number of dwellings consented in each region every month).
Most of the growth in new homes being consented was for townhouses and home units, with 12,390 consented in the year to March, up 39.9% compared to the previous 12 months.
Standalone houses are still the main type of homes being built with 22,771 consented in the year to March, but their annual growth is much lower at just 2.2%.
Perhaps surprisingly, the number of apartments and retirements village units consented were lower in the 12 months to March than they were in the previous 12 months, with apartment consents down 9.0% and retirement village unit consents down 9.9% compared to the year to March 2020.
The total value of construction work for new dwellings consented in the year to March was $15.2 billion, up 9.5% compared to the previous 12 months.
On top of that another $2.0 billion of residential, structural alteration work was consented, taking the total value of residential building work consented to $17.2 billion for the year to March, up 8.4% on the previous 12 months.
Auckland was the main driver of the growth, with consents issued for 17,495 new dwellings in the region in the year to March, up 17.2% compared to the previous 12 months.
That meant Auckland accounted for 42.6% of the new dwelling consents issued nationwide.
Other regions were annual consent growth was in double digits for the year were Gisborne 18.5%, Hawke's Bay 29.7%, Manawatu/Whanganui 17.8%, Tasman 26.5% and Canterbury 11.7%.
However several regions posted annual declines in the number of new dwellings consented - Wellington -8.1%, Nelson -29.6%, Marlborough -9.4%, West Coast -11.0%, Otago -15.8% and Southland -12.8%.
The comment stream on this story is now closed.
Building consents - residential
Select chart tabs
- You can have articles like this delivered directly to your inbox via our free Property Newsletter. We send it out 3-5 times a week with all of our property-related news, including auction results, interest rate movements and market commentary and analysis. To start receiving them, go to our email sign up page, scroll down to option 6 to select the Property Newsletter, enter your email address and hit the Sign Me Up button.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.