New Zealand building consents for residential housing fell 1.7 percent in February, the second straight monthly decline, as the number of apartments extended their decline from record levels at the end of 2013.
New dwelling consents, including apartments, fell to a seasonally adjusted 1,915 in February from 1,949 in January, according to Statistics New Zealand. Excluding apartments and units, which are typically volatile from month to month, seasonally adjusted consents rose 3 percent to 1,805.
Annual residential issuance rose 14.7 percent from a year earlier, or up 21.6 percent excluding apartments. There were an unadjusted 21,842 consents issued in February. Of that, 19,414 were for new houses and 2,428 for apartments.
New dwelling consents rose to 464 in Auckland in February from 433 the previous month, while in Canterbury they climbed to 530 from 520.
Today's figures show the value of non-residential building consents rose 13 percent to $4.4 billion in the year ended in February while the value for residential buildings gained 27 percent to $8.17 billion. The value of all building consents rose 22 percent to $12.5 billion.
