New dwelling consents down 7.6% in September compared to a year ago

New dwelling consents took a breather in September, mainly due to a drop in the number of stand alone houses and apartments being consented, while townhouse and home unit consents were up

Property

New dwelling consents took a breather in September, mainly due to a drop in the number of stand alone houses and apartments being consented, while townhouse and home unit consents were up

31st Oct 18, 11:49am by Greg Ninness

The number of new homes consented took a breather in September, with new dwelling consents down 7.6% compared to September last year.

Statistics NZ said 2559 new dwellings were consented throughout the country in September, compared to 3075 in August and 2770 in September last year.

It was the lowest number of new dwelling consents issued since February.

The decline was mainly evident in the number of new stand alone houses and apartments consented in September.

Just 1673 stand alone houses were consented in September, which was down 11% compared to August and -9.2% compared to September last year.

And just 215 apartments were consented in September, down 57.6% compared to August and down 48.2% compared to February last year.

Conversely, the number of home units and townhouses consented increased from 497 in August to 506 in September which was up 18.5% compared to September last year.

In the 12 months to September, a record 6059 townhouses and units were consented, which means their number has trebled in the last five years.

The figures reflect the increasing move away from stand alone houses to higher density housing.

The decline in new dwellings was evident in most parts of the country but especially in Auckland, where 854 new dwellings were consented compared to 1298 in August (-34%) and 868 in September last year (-1.6%).

It was the first time new consents in Auckland have been below 1000 a month since February.

It is estimated that around 1100 new dwellings need to be added to Auckland's housing stock each month just to keep pace with its high, migration-driven, population growth.

Canterbury went against the trend, with 475 new dwelling consents issued in the region in September compared to 394 in August (+20.6%) and 470 in September last year (+1%) (see the interactive chart below for the full regional monthly trends).

However, on an annual basis the number of new homes being consented is continuing to rise with 32,548 new dwellings consented in the 12 months to the end of September, up 5.4% compared to the previous 12 months.

The total value of the new dwelling consents issued in the year to September (excluding land and non-construction costs) was $11.986 billion, up 5.8% compared to the previous 12 months.

The value of consents issued for structural alterations to existing dwellings also took a dip in September, dropping to $163 million from $190 million in August (-14.2%) and down 6.8% compared to September last year.

Building consents - residential

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Source: Statistics NZ

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5 Comments

by BuyLowSellHigh | 31st Oct 18, 12:38pm 1540942715

Core Logic estimates that only 70% of building consents result in a net increase in dwellings, due in large part to the fact that quite a few of the consented units are to replace existing dwellings that will be demolished.

NZ had a net gain of 6,263 people in September. 2,320 houses are needed to accommodate this. If Core Logic is correct, only 1,791 of September's consented units will actually be built, and we are looking at quite a shortfall (for this month anyway - I realise it's more relevant to look at per anum stats, but monthly supply/demand still an interesting comparison).

by waymad | 31st Oct 18, 2:03pm 1540947788

If one stretches the UI widget back to the start of the series, and picks 'Canterbury', then it looks very much like a reversion to a mean of around 370-420 consents per period. There is a pronounced slowdown post 2008, a definite 'aligning insurance and EQC ducks' period 2010-2012, a boom as the money flows and the replacements get built, then a taper to the LTA. Quite a good story. And no, not a word aboot Awkland....

by Foyle | 31st Oct 18, 3:16pm 1540952183

The coalition has had a year so far to get stuck into reducing the cost of building - and yet haven't touched any of the 'easy' things like cutting very high council subdivision and consenting costs (why does $1-500k/hectare rural land cost $3-5million/hectare when subdivided?) and inspection regime red-tape, over the top health and safety regs, materials supply cartels backed by regulatory entry-barriers creating quasi monopolies (eg gib board) and huge service connection charges.

As a result building continues to be slow and economically unattractive, house build numbers stay low and the lack of house supply continues to be a big problem. Why can't they get off their arses and do something about the expensive impediments to growth of building supply? One can only surmise that (like National) they don't really want to, as they want prices to hold up or even increase to preserve their votes.

by Laminar | 31st Oct 18, 4:09pm 1540955387

I agree its very annoying. Neither National nor Labor are very competent, but they are both generally cautious. To solve problems like this quickly you need someone who will take risks and that's not the central parties MO.

by mikekirk29 | 31st Oct 18, 4:30pm 1540956642

Apartment consents and section sales in Auckland drop off a cliff in September compared to sterling growth in July and August.... and townhouses don't. Of course, none of this is due to reduction and flight of Chinese buyers following the OBB? Perish the thought. For 8 months the market has exceeded 2017 each month and now its gone into deep freeze. Funny how Chinese stock market is 25% off its peak and Australian consents fell 27% in September also..... Here comes phase two of the drop from 2015 2nd quarter high. So far sales 27% down off that high.