Govt hails consent figures

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The 23,370 new houses consented over the past year is being held up as a sign the Government’s housing reforms are working.

Wednesday, July 30th 2014, 12:00AM 1 Comment

by The Landlord

New Zealand building consents increased at their fastest pace in three months in June, rising a seasonally adjusted 3.5%, led by Canterbury.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the house building rate was at its strongest in seven years.

“I am particularly encouraged by the record new house build rate in Christchurch where the housing market is very tight. Three hundred and eighty-two houses for a single month is a phenomenal rate and almost four times the long-term house build monthly rate pre-earthquake. The 3651 homes consented in Christchurch in the year to June 2014 is over double the 1730 built in the previous year to June 2013,” he said.
“Good progress is also being made in Auckland where 6826 new consents were issued in the year to June 2014, up 28 per cent on the previous year.”

The number of consents rose to a seasonally adjusted 2104 in June from 2033 in May, according to Statistics New Zealand. Excluding apartments, seasonally adjusted consents rose 2.9%. Unadjusted residential consents rose 27% to 1950 in June from the same month a year earlier.

"The June building consents data show a continued lift in house-building demand," ASB economist Christina Leung said. "Today's result indicates the earthquake rebuild in Canterbury is firmly on track. Along with stronger house building demand in Auckland and improving non-residential building investment, we expect construction growth will continue to lead the New Zealand economy over the next couple of years."

The 6827 dwelling consents issued in Auckland in the year through June is still below the 9000 needed to keep up with population growth, Leung said.

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