Auckland's Mayor Len Brown is talking up 2014 as a "bumper" year for building consents in Auckland.
Speaking at an event to mark the start of construction of Brickworks, Auckland’s latest apartment development, at Hobsonville Point this morning, Brown said he expected about 7000 new homes to be consented in the region this year.
This would compare with the 6300 new houses consented in Auckland last year.
The number of houses constructed in Auckland dipped sharply after the global financial crisis, hitting a trough of under 3500 in 2009. The most recent peak of activity in any calendar year was the more than 12,000 consented in 2004.
Auckland has targeted 39,000 new houses/sections over a three year period after the signing last year of the Auckland Housing Accord. The accord targeted 9000 houses/sections in the first year of operation of the accord, though as this didn't start till the final quarter of last year the projections are not for calendar years.
Brown said it was clear that Auckland was entering a growth phase for Auckland home building.
"Over the next few years Aucklanders will see a lot more building activity across the region, with a good mix of apartments, terraced houses and standalone houses.
"This boost in residential construction has been helped by strong economic growth, greater certainty for developers and improvements to the council’s consenting processes.
"I have been really impressed by the work of our consenting teams. Although volumes are much higher than previous years, the building and resource consent teams have continued to perform at 95% at least, of consents processed within statutory timeframes."
He said that resource consents continue to increase – up from 12,000 in 2011/2012, 13,000 in 2012/2013 and at the current growth, expected to increase to 14,000+ in 2013/2014.
The resource consents issued will result in a significant increase in new dwellings over the next years with more than 20,000 new lots approved as part of resource consents issued in the last 6 months, he said.
He pointed out that apartments were becoming a larger proportion of new homes.
"In December alone in Auckland consents were granted for 397 new apartments. Over the last six months, consents for 1918 new apartments were granted."
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.