New Zealand Building Consents Climb 0.6% In December

(RTTNews) - The total number of building consents issued in New Zealand was up a seasonally adjusted 0.6 percent on month in December, Statistics New Zealand said on Friday - coming in at 4,128.

On a yearly basis, the number of home loans consented was up 24 percent to 48,899.

The annual value of non-residential building work consented was NZ$8.2 billion, up 16 percent from the December 2020 year.

In the year ended December 2021, the number of new dwellings consented per 1,000 residents was 9.6, compared with 7.8 in the December 2020 year.

In December, permits were issued for 1,823 stand-alone houses; 1,653 townhouses, flats, and units; 397 apartments and 255 retirement village units.

The seasonally adjusted number of new stand-alone houses consented rose 0.4 percent in December after falling 6.2 percent in November.

In the December 2021 quarter, the seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented fell 1.2 percent, after rising 2.6 percent in the September 2021 quarter.

By region, the numbers of new dwellings consented in the year ended December 2021 were: 20,529 in Auckland (up 23 percent on year); 5,128 in Waikato (up 27 percent); 3,656 in Wellington (up 20 percent); 7,822 in rest of North Island (up 25 percent); 7,714 in Canterbury (up 31 percent) and 4,046 in rest of South Island (up 16 percent).

In the December 2021 year, the non-residential building types with the highest values were education buildings at NZ$1.5 billion (up 22 percent); factories at NZ$1.3 billion (up 62 percent); and storage buildings at NZ$1.1 billion (down 8.8 percent).