The number of building consents issued for new dwellings edged back above 3000 for the the first time in seven months in May, but the overall trend is for a continuing decline.
According to Statistics NZ, consents were issued for 3175 new dwellings throughout the country in May. That's up from 2926 in April, and is the highest number in any month of the year since June 2023.
However May's consents were down 14.8% compared to May last year, and down 29.8% compared to May 2022.
The annual figures show a more consistent decline, with 34,851 new dwellings consented in the 12 months to May this year, down from 45,164 (-22.8%) in the 12 months to May 2023, and down from 51,015 (-31.7%) compared to the 12 months to May 2022.
Apartments and retirement village units appear to have taken the biggest hits, with consents for new apartments down by more than half, dropping from 4164 in the 12 months to May last year to 2013 in the 12 months to May this year (-51.7%).
Consents for new retirement village units declined from 3233 in the 12 months to May last year to 1704 in the 12 months to May this year, down 47.3%.
Consents for stand alone houses were down 18.3% over the same period, while townhouse and home unit consents were down 16.9%.
The total estimated value of the building work (excluding land) for the new dwellings consented in the 12 months to May this year was $15.753 billion, down by $3.314 billion (-17.4%) compared to the 12 months to May 2023.
The interactive chart below shows the residential building consent trends in all regions of the country.
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Building consents - residential
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9 Comments
I looks like the SI is responsible for the rise. Auckland is stabilising.
I think the consents are down, but completions are still continuing at high levels. Residential construction activity is only down about 10% on last year - and still above 2022 levels. There is still a lot of building consents in circulation, especially in Auckland.
If it's anything like my consent, I'm not surprised. It's taken 6 months to get a consent to build a similar house to the one I live in now.
3 years for us, council kept on delaying the final approval of the same city plan changes we have had in place already for 10years.
This makes it even more surprising that inspection bookings at our local council has blown out to 10 working days.
Consents still taking more than 20 days to be issued too
Yet most builders in town are quiet. We"re getting cv's and phone calls weekly from carpenters looking for work.
Not looking good for the local construction industry at the moment
The builder I've engaged for my new residence has just employed 2 new chippies.
I'd like to know the % of Code of Compliances given compared to the amount of Building Consents.
Plenty of Consents never see a single nail driven in .
My consent was issued yesterday, and the build will be starting soon.
I think this is the dataset you're after: https://www.stats.govt.nz/experimental/experimental-building-indicators…
Historically looks like something around 90%
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