There seems to be no slow down in enthusiasm to build new homes, with the number of new dwelling consents issued in the three months to July running at its highest level since the 1970s.
According to Statistics NZ, the number of new dwelling consents issued throughout the country dipped from 3285 in February to 2915 in March and 2174 in April as lockdown Level 4 bit hard.
But numbers then recovered quickly, rising to 3562 in May, and sliding back slightly to 3477 in June and 3391 in July.
Over the three months to July 10,430 new dwelling consents were issued throughout the country, which according to Statistics NZ was the most in any three month period since the 1970s.
The decline of dwelling consents issued in July was mainly due to fewer retirement village units being consented, while consents for stand alone houses and apartments were up compared to June and the number of townhouses and units consented were down very slightly compared to June.
Stand alone house houses remain by far the most popular type of new dwelling, with 1938 consented throughout the country in July, followed by 1030 townhouses and units, 288 apartments and 135 retirement village units.
The number of new homes being consented since the Level 4 lockdown has been particularly strong in Auckland, rising from 894 in April to 1367 in May, 1439 in June and 1569 in July, which was the highest number of dwellings consented in any month in Auckland since records on Statistics NZ's publicly searchable database began in 1990..
However, new dwelling consents in Wellington and Canterbury in July were both well down on the numbers in May and June.
In the 12 months to the end of July, 37,585 new dwelling consents were issued throughout the country, up 6% on the previous 12 months.
The interactive chart below tracks the number of new dwelling consents issued monthly in each region.
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Building consents - residential
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24 Comments
"with the border closure because of COVID-19, some money set aside for overseas holidays may have gone into fixing up homes
New housing developments, alterations and renovations along with a steady pipeline of public infrastructure projects might keep the construction sector afloat for the foreseeable future.
Just wondering why consents are so high but banks are pulling up the handbrake on developers?
Worried about over supply
Banks these days prefer funding projects where much of the stock is sold off-plan at early stages of development. For the same reason, commercial properties are often leased to potential occupants even before the construction companies break ground.
"fewer retirement village units being consented" - what? Have we reached Peak Geezer?
Several large villages going through the resource consent process in Auckland right now so that will convert to BCs in about 6 months
Considering there's about a gazillion of them built or being built in Hamilton alone, I'd say it will not be long before they go to overshoot. Then what?
Social housing compounds with bowling greens
Matter of time before there is an over supply of houses..
My gut tells me we must be there already.
That's good, right? The housing crisis is one of our big issues..
Wonder how many of these are the prebuilt houses from Guangzhou
That's an interesting point!
Really good result, especially noting state housing delivery has been only averaging about 40 dwellings per month in Auckland
A little bit of overshoot never hurt anybody.
In Auckland they are jamming as many houses as possible on to each section. The developers are going crazy bidding up the price of the land. QV 1.9M no problem going to 2.9M. Check out 4 Stoke Street Mt Eden - unbelievable. This has the potential to cause a major glut and a 1970s style price collapse.
In the early 1970s, New Zealand experienced a rapid increase in house prices caused by, among other things, a swift run-up in immigration and a shortage of builders and building materials. Between 1971 and 1974 real house prices increased by 60%. This caused alarm, and the government responded by loosening planning controls to allow more flats to be built in cities. Then the 1973 oil shock hit, net migration turned negative, and the economy entered into a prolonged slide. (Thanks Muldoon!)
From 1974 to 1980, house prices fell by around 40% in real terms.
Except in 1970s we didn't have 30k Air BnBs (37k according to this report which includes "bedrooms"). For every house/rental taken out of the pool for Air BnB, one can assume a dwelling is built to take its place (supply and demand).
Too much optimism on Akl housing supply. Immigration taps will be opened soon, within a year, so the supply will revert back to not enough.
It appears to me that every street in Auckland has building activity. One house removed and three, four or even more built. It won't stop until the demand collapses as their is no shortage of money to keep building. The housing market needs cheap money and people. Once the Kungflu has passed we will need to open the immigration taps big time.
True, the one thing we simple cannot allow is affordable housing for wider generations of New Zealanders.
The portfolio view of a few older generations is the sacred cow. All must be sacrificed for them.
I realms of 70k per year entering NZ are long gone
Don't worry, the tap will be turned on again. But there may not be any water flowing through the system
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