Townhouses and home units are the cheapest type of new dwelling to build by a substantial margin, according to interest.co.nz's latest New Dwelling Consent Analysis tables.
The tables analyse Statistics NZ's residential building consent data to provide an average build cost by type of dwelling (stand alone houses, apartments, retirement village units and townhouses/home units), in each the country's main urban regions.
In the second quarter of this year, the estimated average build cost (excluding land) of the 3594 townhouses/homes units consented was $347,206, compared to $576,955 for stand alone houses, $523,760 for apartments and $522,299 for retirement village units.
The figures also suggest that townhouses/units were also the most efficient to build, with an average build cost per square metre of $3106, compared to $3225 for houses, $4397 for apartments and $3846 for retirement village units.
Overall, the average estimated build cost of all the new dwellings consented in the second quarter of this year was $471,683, a record high.
Over the last five years the estimated average build cost of new homes has increased by $106,663, up 29%.
However while the build costs have gone up, the size of new homes is getting smaller.
In Q2 this year the average size of all the new dwellings consented was 145 square metres, down from 155sqm in Q2 2020 and 201sqm in Q2 2010.
In part, that is due to the increasing prevalence of multi unit developments such as apartments and terrace housing complexes, which tend to be smaller than individual houses.
But even stand alone houses are getting smaller, with the average size of houses consented declining from 192sqm in Q2 2020 to 179sqm in Q2 this year.
Go back 15 years to Q2 2010 and the average size of stand alone houses consented was 215sqm.
The full analysis tables for the whole of New Zealand are available here, while the regional tables for Auckland are here, Waikato here, Bay of Plenty here, Wellington Region here, Canterbury here and Otago here.
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