Building consents hit 10-year high

Pleas to boost Auckland’s housing supply seem to be paying off as the latest building consents data shows a significant jump in SuperCity consents.

Monday, August 31st 2015, 8:56PM

by Miriam Bell

According to the latest Statistics New Zealand data, Auckland recorded a 31% rise in new dwelling consents in July 2015 as compared to July 2014.

While Auckland led the way, there was also a nationwide increase.

Around the country, new dwelling consents were up by 24% in July 2015 as compared to July 2014.

Once seasonally adjusted, this was an increase of 20% from June 2015, which saw a slight drop in the number of consents issued.

Further, Waikato recorded an even bigger annual increase than Auckland,

It recorded a 40% jump in new dwelling consents in July 2015 as compared to July 2014.

Statistics New Zealand business indicators manager Neil Kelly said July saw the highest number of new dwellings consented in a month since March 2005.

He said the figure was boosted by apartments, townhouses, flats, and units – all of which recorded an increase in consents – and showed the trend is increasing.

July’s very sharp rise was not just noise due to the volatile apartments category, according to Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod.

Single unit consent numbers were up a strong 11.6%, he said.

“Consent issuance can be volatile on a month-to-month basis, but today’s result does still leave us with a positive near-term picture for construction.”

Ranchhod said the uptrend in Auckland home construction remains firmly in place, while Canterbury also saw some pick up.

“Building activity in Canterbury has levelled off since the start of this year, but it has not dropped away just yet.

“Reconstruction activity in the region will remain strong for some time yet, but will start to wind back from next year.”

Meanwhile, the latest Auckland Housing Accord monitoring report, also shows the number of building consents in the SuperCity have hit a 10-year high.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the report’s house build rate of 8300 per year is the fastest in a decade.

“The rate has grown at over 20% per year since 2012 – the longest and strongest period of growth ever.”

Auckland Mayor Len Brown said the council’s Housing Project Office is seeing a marked acceleration of development works within Auckland’s established SHAs.

While activity so far has centred on earthworks, infrastructure construction and subdivision, the council is starting to see house building ramp up as the development pipeline kicks in, Brown said.

“We are also currently assessing a number of plan variations in a variety of locations which will add substantially to the development programme commencing across the region this summer.

“It is exciting to see development proceeding quickly so that real inroads can be made into Auckland’s housing shortage.”

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