New dwelling consents declined 30% in April compared to March

The number of new dwellings consented in April dropped sharply.

According to Statistics New Zealand, 3719 new dwellings were consented in April, down 30% compared to March, and down 6.9% compared to April last year.

However it is too soon to say if the decline was part of a longer term trend.

That's because new dwelling consent numbers usually decline in April compared to March, and much of the decline was for apartments (-44% compared to April last year), and retirement village units (-42% compared to April last year). The monthly figures for these can be volatile due to the size of these developments.

However one long term trend readily apparent is the increasing popularity of medium density housing such as town houses and home units.

Stand-alone houses have long been the most popular type of new home being built in NZ and although their numbers continue to rise, multi-unit dwelling numbers have grown at a much faster rate. And in April the number of townhouses and home units consented came within a hair's breadth of overtaking stand-alone houses.

There were 1653 stand alone houses consented in April compared to 1625 townhouses and home units. It's likely that townhouses and home units will overtake stand-alone houses in the next few months (the interactive chart below shows the monthly trends in building consent numbers by types of dwellings).

The value of consents for structural alteration work to existing homes also dropped away in April, with $185 million of structural alterations consented, down from $235 million (-21%) in March.

That took the total value of all residential building work consented in April to $1.797 billion, down from $2.291 billion (-22%) in March.

In the year to April, 50,583 new dwellings were consented throughout the country, up 18% compared to the previous 12 months.

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