The number of new homes being consented continues to show strong growth, with 41,268 new dwellings consented in the 12 months to August this year, according to Statistics NZ.
That was up 21.1% compared to the previous August year and was the second annual increase over that time period. However, it remains well below the recent record of 50,653 homes consented in the year to August 2022.
Stand alone houses remain the most popular type of new home being built, with 19,096 consented in the August year, followed by 18,085 townhouses and home units, 2381 apartments and 1706 retirement village units.
Retirement village units showed the strongest growth, with their numbers up 27.2%, following two years of substantial annual declines.
That was followed by 24.7% growth in townhouse and home unit consents, while stand alone houses were up 21.2%.
Apartments were the only type of dwelling to post an annual decline, dropping 4.0%.
Apartment consent numbers are extremely volatile, with consents up 45.5% in the 12 months to August last year, after declining 55.2% in the prior August year.
The total value of building work, excluding land costs, consented for new dwellings in the year to August was $18.5 billion, up 19.1%. That was the highest value of new dwelling consents issued in the year to August since 2022.
On top of that another $2.2b of structural alteration work to existing dwellings was consented in the August year, taking the total value of residential building work consented to $20.7b for the year, up 16.9% on the previous August year
Several types of non-residential building work also made strong gains, with $1.32b of educational buildings consented, up 9.3% in the August 2026 year, following a 13.7% increase in the 12 months to August 2025.
Consents for office building were also up strongly at $1.8b in the year to August, up 18.9% on the previous August year.
However, there were significant declines in the value of consents issued for factories, down 24.0% in the year to August, hospitals and nursing homes down 22.5%, retail buildings down 5.0% and warehouse/storage buildings down 0.7%.
The total value of non-residential building work consented in the 12 months to August was $8.9b, up 2.2% compared to the August 2025 year.
Building consents - type
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Building consents - residential
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