The number of new homes being consented is continuing to decline, according to the latest figures from Statistics NZ.
There were 2777 new dwellings consented in January, down by 86 (-2.0%) compared to January last year.
Although the decline was small, January was the fourth consecutive month the number of homes consented has been below the same month a year earlier, suggesting a slow but steady decline in residential building activity.
However although the number of dwellings consented in January was down 2% on a year earlier, the estimated build costs were up 2.5%, suggesting increasing costs are still a feature of the market.
The downturn in new dwellings consented in January compared to a year earlier was particularly significant in Auckland -11.5%, Waikato -17.8%, Bay of Plenty -14.8%, Tasman -7.4% and Nelson -20.0%.
The decline in building activity wasn't limited to construction of new dwellings.
The estimated value of consented dwelling alterations was down 8.5% in January compared to a year earlier, which was the second month in a row that the value of alterations consented has been below the previous year's figure, suggesting home owners' enthusiasm for alterations may be starting to abate.
The latest figures suggest the trend for fewer stand alone houses and more multi-unit dwellings such as apartments and home units to be built continues to gather momentum, with the number of stand alone houses consented in January down 25.6% compared to a year earlier, while the number of multi-unit homes consented was up 22% over the same period.
The slide in new building activity does not appear to be limited to residential buildings.
The total floor area of non-residential buildings consented in January, which includes everything from shops, factories and offices, to schools and hospitals, was down 32% compared to January last year and for the 12 months to January was down 5.3% compared to the previous 12 months.
January was the fourth consecutive month that the total floor area of non-residential buildings consented has been below the same month of the previous year.
The charts below show the number of new dwelling consents issued each month by dwelling type and region.
A quarterly analysis of building consent trends including average cost per square metre and average size of consent issued, is available for residential consents here, and for commercial consents here.
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Building consents - type
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Building consents - residential
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9 Comments
This is what a collapse looks like.
We have just lost 20,000 dwellings to the weather according to RNZ this morning. And we have just opened the immigration flood gates?
So if they can stop building houses we must all be adequately housed? Right?
Just like when people get married or divorced, have kids or retire.
The difference is marriages/divorces etc are not under state control, yet.
I just like the assumption that there's this all seeing authority making tweaks and adjustments to the system based on who's turned up this week.
"I see Nigel bought a new car, better increase the motorway capacity .0003%".
We don't even have a functional health service anymore and people are expecting next level planning and infrastructure.
It's a meat grinder folks.
But.? How many peope aee leaving this expensive,crime infested, overbearing woke country?.
Drawing trend lines through the peaks and troughs suggest the downtrend is firmly established in most places.
For how long will it continue? Until Orr starts dropping the OCR would be my guess.
Still a lag indicator.
Resource consent applications are a lead indicator and less than 50% of the volume a year ago, in Auckland.
Also saw a mate today who is even closer to the development action than me. He is a VERY optimistic guy, sometimes annoyingly so. Well, even he is saying s major slump has arrived. He’s not so chipper now
You're going to need a bigger chart.
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