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$31.5 billion of new building work consented in the year to June

Property / news
$31.5 billion of new building work consented in the year to June
Scaffolder at work

New homes are continuing to be consented at the rate of almost 1000 a week, despite the headwinds buffeting the housing market.

According to Statistics NZ, 50,736 new dwellings were consented in the 12 months to the end of June, up 14.4% compared to the previous 12 months.

It was the fourth consecutive month that the number of new dwelling consents has been above 50,000 on a rolling 12 month basis.

The growth has mainly been driven by consents for low rise, multi-unit dwellings such as townhouses and units, with 20,184 consented in the June year , up 49.1% compared to the previous 12 months.

However stand-alone houses remain the most popular type of dwelling, with 23,913 consented in the June year , down 2.5% compared to the previous 12 months.

There were also 3913 apartments consented in the June year, down 6.1% on the previous 12 month, and 2726 retirement village units, up 30.2%.

The total value of new dwellings consented in the year to June was just under $20 billion, up 20.5% on the previous 12 months, with another $2.5 billion of structural alteration work consented, up 13.3% on the previous 12 months.

Additionally non-residential building work continues to be consented at a cracking pace.

In the 12 months to June $9 billion of non-residential building work was consented, up 15.8% compared to the 12 months to June 2021.

That took the total value of all building work consented for the June year (residential and non-residential) to $31.5 billion, up 18.5% on the previous 12 months.

The interactive tables below show the trends in the number of residential consents issued nationally by dwelling type and the total number of residential consents issued each month by region.

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Building consents - type

Select chart tabs

Building consents - residential

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#issued Nationally
#issued in Northland
#issued in Auckland
#issued in the Waikato
#issued in the Bay of Plenty
#issued
#issued in Hawkes Bay
#issued
#issued
#issued in Wellington
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# Nelson
#issued
# Westand
#issued in Canterbury
# Otago
# Southland

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38 Comments

Ireland. 

 

Although that said, we don't have an oversupply of housing like they did. Might get there if we build too many units and fail to invest in infrastructure and the economy. People have to want to live here, and from what I'm hearing those that do are in the minority. 

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12

What makes you think we don't have an oversupply?

I think it is highly likely that we do.

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19

... 480 people sleeping in cars ... 24 000 on housing NZ waiting list  ... I'm not seeing an oversupply ...

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7

... there's certainly an oversupply of expensive housing. 

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25

Value for money is so beyond eroded in the property market. A block of 1-bedroom boxes, each selling for $650k, came up in my suburb a few months ago with no parking or open spaces. I feel so sorry for the nice, young families walking in and out of it, living the Kiwi dream!

In NZ, the young should only expect in return for spending their life savings and future income is their name on a title and freedom from being evicted by a landlord. No first-world design or living standards in sight.

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19

Simple changes to tax and zoning policy would go a long way to sorting this out. Greedy entitlement mentality stands in the way.

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0

Indeed.  Perhaps the price crash will allow the Government to utilise the Kianga Ora to pick up this stock?

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2

Yes, the rate at which the govt is driving people into dependancy on the state for housing exceeds the rate of state house purchases.

But that has nothing to do with a housing shortage 

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13

What you are talking about is poverty and homelessness issue. Lots of rental places are struggling to find long term tenants.

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4

But how many houses are empty or turned into AirBNBs. Many landlords only want to rent to people that they know will take good care of their house. Many people don't look after things.

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3

Could say there's an oversupply of Mercedes Benz's in New Zealand judging by the amount of people standing at the bus stop.  

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3

30,000 empty homes in Auckland --      if interest rate rises and price decreases put those on the market for rental again .....

 

Rents still too high for the majority of those people you identify --   and many of the 24000 are currently in garages and overcrowded situations --  they just acant afford private rentals -- or have several dogs -- and other factors that landlords dont like -- like long non payment histories etc 

 

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1

No one sees the oversupply until it's too late and it's only clear with hindsight. If those Irish developers had seen their oversupply they wouldn't broken ground on all the projects that ened up half completed. 

While I don't actually think there is currently a significant oversupply problem in NZ, I doubt we have the shortage we used to.

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7

A lot of these consented builds wont happen.

There is an ever increasing supply of new builds coming on the market that just arnt moving.

These need to sell to finance the next project...

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6

Yes i would imagine builders and developers are still moving with the same processes and momentum as last year.  Getting consent for the next one(s) whilst finishing the prepaid ones from the good old times.

Will take a while to flow through. I saw the other day that enquiries for new builds have dropped 80%.. so  building will presumably also drop by 80%.

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1

🍀💣⬇️

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3

Sydney.

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0

Depends who you're listening to. If you listen to online discussion, NZ is a dystopic wasteland people should flee from immediately.

The problem with these consent figures is they're a gauge of sentiment from 3-6 months ago, so it'll be interesting to see what amount of it comes to light over the next 12-24 months.

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7

I think that's a mischaracterization.

It's just a hugely overrated and overpriced backwater that is circling the drain while everyone plays identity politics to avoid dying of boredom.

That people should flee from immediately.

✈️✅

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1

One problem is that we are building a lot of 'dwellings' that people don't really want to live in. These multilevel units all crammed in together. The other thing that is a ticking time bomb is future maintenance. It is very expensive to maintain multilevel high intensive housing, compared to a single level stand alone dwelling. There was an article about this a few years ago. IMO we are going to end up with a lot of ugly white elephants that will have a relatively short life.  

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4

It is not about how many dwellings are consented but how many dwellings have received a building code of compliance. Consents is only showing an intention to build something in the future. We should implement  planning rules from some of the EU countries in which the land will be repossesed, against the original price the council sold the land,  from you if you not starting to build within 3 months of receiving a building consent. 

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15

Which territorial authority do you work for - Just so I know not to move there

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7

Believe it or not - this is exactly the kind of alternate reality world view I have come to expect from someone working in Government, so your flippant comment might not be so undeserved.

I have had a senior Building Inspector state that we should have carried out invasive investigations (involving ripping apart an occupied commercial building) BEFORE we commenced design work or applied for a Building Consent, and that the Building Act was not suitable for renovations to existing buildings.

Yep - Council requirements can be completely removed from reality.

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4

Yes, I do wonder why they don't quote that. They are making the numbers look better than they really are because there are always going to be consents issued that are never built.

 

There is not need for repossession. Just require councils rate on the LV. Some councils do this now, and it is a fairer way to do things. Also a empty home tax for houses left empty, they do this ins Australia  https://www.sro.vic.gov.au/videos/vacant-residential-land-tax#:~:text=T….  

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0

Oversupply very soon 

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3

I always thought there wasn't a 'shortage of houses'. The shortage was the number of houses being sold on the market during the last few years.But that has now changed. Supply and demand is controlled using the tap at the border.

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3

... in just 2 years the market left to it's own devices has consented as many homes as Labour's " Kiwibuild " promised in 10 years ...

Except  , KB only got 1300 of those 100 000 actually constructed  ... after 4 years ... 

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10

Labour promised to actually build houses though, not just get them consented. These ones won't be getting built either.

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3

Just because a consent to build gets issued, doesn't mean it gets built. My town issued far more consents than building inspections. The number that counts at the end of the day is the number of COCs issued, which shows the house has been built.

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3

A forward indicator like consents is more timely and less accurate - tradeoffs like this always suck.

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0

"Consents issued that are never built".  It's kind of a mute point though, because on average there will be a percentage of consents that do and don't get processed.  If consents double, then it would be reasonable to assume that CoC's would also roughly double.

Here's some completed CoC's numbers (2nd graph in the below link):

https://www.stats.govt.nz/experimental/experimental-building-indicators…

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1

.. Nzdan just beat me to it

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0

Irrelevant when sales have fallen 80%, immigration is being restricted and lending has dried up. These consents would all have been from months and months ago. 

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4

Will It wasnt one of mine , Ive been waiting 7 months for a building consent so I call that 1000 a week Bullsht. Councils havent enough staff to complete the consenting process because its soo long and drawn out. Ive build 2 x 60m2 units by myself in the last 7 months. It really is a joke.

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1

Consents is one thing (its going up/down like a yo yo by the graph- so not accurate
Getting it actually built is another

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0

And so who is building?

https://www.interest.co.nz/business/116935/collapse-residential-constru…

I see new ones coming in the market next year will barely be profitable.

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0

The cost to buy a newly built home in a sub division in my region has probably dropped about 15%. They were going for about $850k last year, not they can't sell them for $725 and lower. Yety the cost to build has risen. Some builders who have built spec houses must be worried. Seen quite a few houses with private sale signs in the windows of the houses. Others have been turned into rentals.

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0

Can you live in a consent?

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0