New townhouses keep building consents high

More than $2.62 billion of building work was consented in July, up 4.1% compared to the same month last year, despite the construction industry facing a slow-down.

Monday, September 5th 2022, 1:33PM

by Sally Lindsay

The total value of new building work consented for the July year was $31.571 billion, up 16.9% compared to the previous 12 months.

In the July year 50,614 new homes were consented, up 12% from the previous year.

The value of new consented residential building during the July year was $22.585 billion, up 18% on the previous 12 months.

Although figures suggest there is another 18 months to two years of work in the pipeline for builders, there has been a noticeable slow-down in stand-alone houses being built, with buyers opting for townhouses because they are perceived as more affordable.

Statistics NZ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop says the number of new homes consented remains high due to the rise in multi-unit homes, especially in Auckland.”

Nationally, there were 27,287 multi-unit homes consented, up 35% compared with the July 2021 year.

Over the same period 23,327 stand-alone houses were consented, down 6.4%.

In July this year alone just 1,730 stand-alone houses were consented, down 25.3% compared to July last year, while 1,853 townhouses were consented, up a whopping 47.3% compared to the same month last year.

Multi-unit homes include townhouses, apartments, retirement village units, and flats.

Since the year ended March this year multi-unit homes have made up a larger proportion of the homes consented annually compared with stand-alone houses, says Heslop.

The annual number of multi-unit homes consented has increased nearly nine-fold in the last decade.

Most of the growth in multi-unit homes has been in Auckland, increasing from 945 in the year ended July 2012 to 16,228 in the year ended July this year.

The five regions with the highest number of multi-unit homes consented in the July year, compared with the year ended July last year were:

Auckland 16,228, up 32%
Canterbury 3,457, up 70%
Wellington 2,511, up 50%
Waikato 1,887, up 27%
Otago 1,069, up 51%

Auckland and Wellington reach new highs

The five regions with the highest number of new homes consented in the year ended July this year compared with last year were:

Auckland 21,743, up 13%
Canterbury 8,556, up 26%
Waikato 5,021, up 4.7%
Wellington 3,927, up 20%
Otago 2,473, up 20%

Both Auckland and Wellington reached new annual records in the number of new homes consented.

Canterbury was the region with the highest number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents, with 13.2. This was followed by Auckland with 12.7 and Otago with 10.

The national number of homes consented per 1,000 residents was 9.9 for the year ended July. The record national number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents was 13.4 in the year ended December 1973.

Tags: building