In the year to August 2009, 12,107 dwellings excluding apartments were consented, followed by 15,523 consents in 2010, 12,433 in 2011, 14,134 in 2012, 17,654 last year and 20,822 in this year to August.
Michael Gordon, Westpac senior economist, said the consents were flat, "slightly better than our assumption of a 1 per cent decline, but with more of a skew towards apartment units (which includes retirement units) than we expected. Indeed, it's clear that the apartments segment of the market has become a major growth area again in the last year.
"Excluding apartment units, housing consents were down 1.6 per cent in August. Consents were down in both Auckland and Canterbury, though within the range of normal monthly variations for these series.
"Non-residential building consents were down in August compared to July, but the last three months combined have been the strongest on record. The Canterbury region has been a major part of this, with larger quake rebuild projects now starting to be signed off," he said.
Mark Smith, ANZ senior economist, questioned reasons for the slight slowing.
"Whether this slowing reflects pre-election jitters or the downdrafts from low housing market activity remains to be seen, but we suspect the former is likely to be more prevalent and expect annual issuance to strengthen towards the end of the year. Annual residential issuance is approaching 24,000 consents the highest level of issuance since May 2008. The upturn is regionally broad based with 13 of the 16 regions reporting a climb in issuance compared to a year ago," Smith said.
See the full building consents release from Statistics NZ here:
