Statistics New Zealand says the trend line for the number of new homes being consented has declined by 15% in the past five months

The latest building consent figures show a disturbing trend, with growth in new residential building consents declining, according to Statistics NZ.

There were 30,123 new dwellings consented in the year to January, which was up 11.1% compared to the previous 12 months, according to Statistics NZ.

But in the month of January just 1752 new dwellings were consented, up just 3.4% compared to January last year.

And Statistics NZ said the trend line for the number of new homes being consented has declined 15% in the five months to January, after reaching a 12 year high in August.

"Most regions appear to have contributed to the recent decrease in residential consents, although Canterbury is the most significant contributor, followed by Auckland," Statistics NZ business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said.

In Auckland 512 new homes were consented in January, barely changed from the 506 that were consented in January last year.

That was followed by Canterbury where 348 new homes were consented in January compared to 289 in January last year, Waikato 201 (261), Bay of Plenty 165 (194), Otago 130 (102) and Wellington 107 (96), (see chart below for all regions)

Nationally the vast majority of new homes being consented are still stand alone houses, with 1253 consented in January, followed by 285 townhouses, flats or units, 116 apartments and 98 retirement village units.

And in an interesting twist, although the total number of new dwellings consented in January was up 3.4% on January last year, the total value of those consents was down 3.5% compared to January last year.

There is little good news in the latest figures, especially for people in Auckland being squeezed by the region's growing housing shortage.

It is estimated that 15,000 new homes need to be built in Auckland every year just to keep pace with its migration-fuelled population growth.

That's an average of 1250 new homes a month, and the 512 that were consented in January was just 41% of what is required, meaning Auckland's housing shortage worsened by around 738 homes during the month.

The amount of non-residential building work being consented is also declining.

In the year to January, consents were issued for 2,659,000 square metres of non-residential buildings, including shops, offices, industrial buildings and social services buildings such as schools and hospitals.

That was down 19.6% compared to the previous 12 months.