KEY POINTS:
For the seventh straight month, the number of houses being built has decreased, as the property market slump continues.
The number of building consents authorised in January was down 7.3 per cent on a year earlier, continuing a downward trend in the figures.
Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) today said 1743 new dwelling unit consents were authorised last month, a decline of 137 from January 2007.
The figures included a fall of 16 apartment consents to 203, while excluding apartments, 121 fewer new dwelling units were authorised.
Despite the year-on-year fall, the seasonally adjusted number of dwelling unit consents was up 3.3 per cent last month, following a 3.9 per cent decrease in December.
Excluding apartments the seasonally adjusted number rose 5 per cent in January, following a 12 per cent fall the month before.
Residential building consents issued in January were valued at $543 million, $5 million more than January 2007.
Non-residential building consents issued last month were worth $316m, a rise of $70m.
For the year to January, 25,407 new dwelling unit consents were issued, down 2 per cent from the January 2007 year. For the same periods the value of residential building consents issued was $7.77 billion, an increase of 6.5 per cent.
For non-residential buildings, the value of consents for the year was $4.25 billion, a 7.9 per cent increase.
The trend series for residential building consents had shown decreases for the past seven months, while that for non-residential consents remained at a high level, SNZ said.
A regional breakdown of the figures showed Auckland with 456 units in January, unchanged from the same month in 2007, and just six down on December.
Canterbury had 293 consents last month, up from 238 in December and from 264 in January 2007.
Both Bay of Plenty and Waikato were up from December but down from a year earlier, while Wellington was down nearly 40 consents from December to 127 but slightly up from January 2007.
- NZPA
