Demand for apartments drive rise in building consents

A surge in new apartments drove an 11.2 per cent rise in the number of new dwelling units authorised in October, according to Statistics New Zealand.

On a seasonally adjusted basis there were 2397 new dwelling units authorised in October, compared to a revised 2155 the previous month. The rise followed three months of decline.

Apartments accounted for 27 per cent of new dwelling units in October, up from 13 per cent in September. There were 708 consents for new apartments issued, compared with 295 in September and 284 in August.

There were 31,534 consents for new dwelling units issued in the year ended October, up 2299, or 8 per cent, from the previous year.

The value of consents issued in October for non-residential buildings was $347 million. Of this consents issued for offices and administration buildings were worth $55 million, followed by storage buildings worth $54 million, and factories and industrial buildings worth $41 million.

The total value of consents issued in October for all buildings was $948 million up $132 million, or 16 per cent, compared with the year earlier.

Residential buildings contributed 63 per cent to the total value of all buildings, compared with 69 per cent the same time last year.

On an annual basis the total value of consents issued for all buildings was $10.4 billion, up 20 per cent , or $1.7 billion on the year-ended October 2003.

The trend series for, which strips out seasonal and other irregularities, showed consents for total dwelling units slipped 0.9 per cent in October to 2236. The trend series has been on the decline since December 2003.

- NZPA