New dwelling consents fell seasonally adjusted 5.7pc in November

Further signs that the housing market is cooling emerged today, with November new dwelling consents falling a seasonally adjusted 5.7 per cent, according to Statistics New Zealand.

That follows a 12.3 per cent rise in October.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the 2301 consents issued in November 2004 was down 21.5 per cent on the 2920 issued in November 2003.

Most of November's fall was due to the fall in the number of consents for apartments. Excluding apartments, the seasonally adjusted number of new dwelling consents authorised was down just 0.8 per cent at 1902.

The actual number of consents issued in November was 2675, compared with 2619 in October and 3032 in November 2003. There were 637 apartment consents against 708 in October and 495 in November 2003.

Apartment units accounted for 24 per cent of all new dwelling units in November, compared with 27 per cent in October.

SNZ said although the trend for the number of new dwelling units had been declining since December 2003, the number of consents for new dwelling units has been historically high since March 2003.

Consents for 31,618 new dwelling units were issued in the year ended November, up 6 per cent from the November 2003 year. This is the largest total for a November year since 1974.

The total value of consents issued for all buildings in November 2004 was $1.005 billion, up 17 per cent compared with November 2003.

The value of residential consents in November came to $589.3 million against $609.8m in October.

The number of non-residential building consents rose to 1567, valued at $415.9m, compared with 1337, valued at $348.1m, in October and 1339 valued at $255.3m in November 2003.

The largest contributors to non-residential construction were offices and administration buildings, followed by shops, restaurants and taverns.

In November 2004, residential buildings contributed 59 per cent to the total value of all buildings, compared with 70 per cent in November 2003.

- NZPA