There was a big jump in new dwelling consents in Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Otago last month, while Canterbury and Wellington were more subdued

There was a big rise in the number of new dwelling consents issued in February, especially in Auckland.

According to Statistics NZ, consents were issued for 2379 new dwellings throughout the country in February, up 35.3% compared to February last year and the highest number in the month of February since 2004.

In the 12 months to the end of February 27,745 new dwelling consents were issued which was up 12% compared to the previous 12 months.

Stand alone houses remain the most common type of dwelling being consented, with 1712 new houses consented in February followed by 341 townhouses, flats and units, 204 apartments and 122 retirement village units.

Auckland led the way with 787 new dwelling consents issued in February compared to 528 in February last year, followed by Canterbury with 525 new consents compared with 517 in February last year, Waikato with 274 consents compared with 195 in February last year, Bay of Plenty with 200 consents compared with 101 in February last year and Otago with 172 consents compared with 73 in February last year.

Wellington came in at sixth place with just 113 new consents issued in February compared with 102 in February last year.

The total value of new residential dwellings consented last month was $926 million, which was the highest ever monthly value of new dwelling consents.

On top of that was another $151 million of consents for structural alterations to existing dwellings, which meant $1.077 billion of residential building work was consented last month, compared to $769 million in February last year.

However non-residential building consents showed a reversal of fortune last month, with $372 million of non-residential building work consented in February compared with $470 million in February last year.

Of the non-residential building work was consented last month, $82 million was for storage buildings such as warehouses, followed by $58 million of retail premises, $52 million of office space and $46 million of educational buildings.

Unfortunately while the increase in new dwelling consents in Auckland was welcome, it is still well short of what is required to house the city's rapidly growing population of increasing shortage of housing.

It is estimated that at least 14,500 new homes need to be built in Auckland each year just to keep pace with population growth, which would mean an average of  1208 new consents a month.

The 787 consents issued in Auckland last month was just 65% of what is needed, meaning Auckland's housing shortage is continuing to get worse every month.

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