The value of new building work being consented continued to decline in January, both on a monthly and annual basis.
According to Statistics NZ, the total value of all building work, both residential and non-residential, consented in January this year was $1.772 billion. That's down 12.1% compared to January last year.
In the 12 months to the end of January this year $26.662 billion of building work was consented, down 6.7% from $28.577 billion in the January 2024 year
And over the two years to January 2025, the value of building work consented annually has declined by $5.577 billion from $32.2 billion in the year to January 2023.
On the residential building front, 33,812 new dwellings were consented in the 12 months to January 2025. That's down from 36,453 in the 12 months to January 2024, and from 49,480 in the 12 months to January 2023.
On an annual basis 15,668 fewer homes were consented in the year to January 2025 compared to the same period two years previously.
On the non-residential front, 2.231 million square metres of new non-residential building space was consented in the 12 months to January 2025. That's down from 2.637 million square metres in the 12 months to January 2024, and down from 3.011 million square metres in the 12 months to January 2023.
Non-residential space includes commercial buildings such as shops, offices and warehouses as well as public buildings such as schools and hospitals.
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4 Comments
Here's an idea:
Let's have a state housing agency that will build, own, and manage 100,000 homes for secure, lifetime, income-moderated rent by all who want them.
That might spark up the economy.
Is that you, Jacinda ?
So very well said, John.
What you propose is a perfectly valid example of a proven solution, that was used with huge success in the post-Great Depression 1930s, right here in NZ!
It was a PBS (Public Banking Solution), that generated credit on this basis and was acknowledged as a standout blueprint that all countries of the world could use to avoid or to recover from financial crises, and the central bank orchestrated pump-and-dump asset-blowing cons that have always been about concentrating wealth and power in the hands of the global financial elite.
Ellen Brown is the globe's foremost authority on the PBS method - below are quotes from pages 371-375 of her landmark book "The Public Bank Solution"...
"But politicians are inherently conservative. they are adept at finding reasons not to do a thing until they are faced with overwhelming evidence in its favour or with an overwhelming popular demand for it; and if the people are to demand it, they first need to understand it themselves.
How effective a grassroots push can be, was demonstrated in NZ in the 1930s., when a popular movement transformed the RBNZ, from a privately owned central bank that would take orders from the Bank of England, into a vehicle for generating credit for the local economy.
To persuade politicians advocates need a firm grasp of the principle themselves and of the objections likely to be raised."
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The critics within NZ society, and indeed they are represented in this comment string, are the typical illustration of the knee-jerk reactions of those who have little understanding of how public utility models can work in banking, and how they can build permanent and sustainable societal wealth. In their void of knowledge, they end up unwittingly cheerleading for the status quo - this only adds to the obscene wealth of the 0.001% cohort - the global financial kleptocrats.
This is not about their distracting go-to catch-cry "socialism"-!!!, or any of the other 'isms' for that matter - this is simply about garden variety common sense. The democratisation of 'money' can be the currency that leads to a far better world, and at the same time addresses the political lobby system - the system that always provides Mainstreet and the real economy, with the very best politicians that money can buy.
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Humanity stands at a crossroads - as Buckminster Fuller so eloquently stated in 1981...
"We are blessed with technology that would be indescribable to our forefathers. We have the wherewithal, the know-it-all to feed everybody, clothe everybody, and give every human being on earth a chance.
We know what we could never have known before - that we now have the option for all humanity to make it on this planet in this lifetime. Whether it is to be Utopia or oblivion, will be a touch-and-go relay race, right up to the final moment."
Regards to all
Col
This has fallen below the 35,000 per annum that HUD previously advised the Minister was the risk level for maintaining building activity during the downturn.
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