New data is out today on building consents issued. Photo / Brett Phibbs
New data is out today on building consents issued. Photo / Brett Phibbs
The number of homesconsented in November was 3100, up 4.8% up on the same month in 2023, but annually numbers are continuing to fall and costs are rising at a fraction of what they were previously.
In the year ended November, 33,609 new dwellings were consented, down 12% annually, Stats NZ said today.
Economic indicators spokesman Michael Heslop said the November consents comprised 1402 standalone houses, 1698 multi-unit homes, 186 apartments and 75 retirement village units.
”While the number of homes consented each month has fluctuated, the trend has remained relatively steady for the last year,” Heslop said.
The Cordell Construction Cost Index found house-building costs only rose 1.1% in the latest year, well below 2022′s 10.4%.
That study out on Friday found the cost to build a standard single-storey three-bedroom, two-bathroom standalone dwelling rose only 0.6% in the three months to December, well below the 1.1% growth in 2024′s third quarter and also below the long-term average quarterly rise of 1%.
The annual growth during the past 12 months has also slowed to just 1.1%, down from 2023′s rise of 2.4% and also well below the spike of 10.4% in 2022.
CoreLogic chief property economist Kelvin Davidson. Photo / Peter Meecham
CoreLogic chief property economist Kelvin Davidson said it was little surprise cost growth has slowed lately.
“The previous Covid-related pressures on materials supply chains such as plasterboard are no longer an issue, and there’s also been a wider slowdown in the number of new dwellings consented and actual residential construction work being undertaken,” Davidson said.
Carpet and wall insulation costs rose 3% in the last quarter, plasterboard 4% but external timber costs fell 5% and kitchen joinery prices were down 3%, the index found.
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said it was “great news on construction cost inflation, now well under control”.
Satish Ranchhod, a Westpac senior economist, said in reaction to today’s consent data: “The downturn in residential development looks like it has found a floor, but a turnaround is still a way off. The number of new residential building consents has been running around current levels for much of the past year. It will take time for the full impact of lower borrowing costs to be felt. We don’t expect to see consent issuance turning materially higher until mid-2025, with a lift in construction activity to follow that.”
Stats NZ’s regional breakdown for new homes consented to November 2024 was:
13,905 in Auckland, down 12%
2836 in Waikato, down 21%
1839 in Wellington, down 33%
5009 for the rest of the North Island, down 7%
6502 in Canterbury, down 9.2%
3517 for the rest of the South Island, up 1.7%
Non-residential data
Stats NZ said today the annual value of non-residential building work consented in the year to November was $9.4 billion, down 1.6% from the year to November 2023.
Non-residential building types with the highest values were:
Offices, administration and public transport buildings at $1.8b, up 26%
Hospitals, nursing homes and health buildings at $1.3b, down 7.3%
Storage buildings at $1.3b, down 16%
Last month, Zoltan Moricz of CBRE issued a study which found Ikea’s debut New Zealand store is the largest new Auckland building out of 53 projects planned, rising or just completed, although data centres dominate new stock overall, a survey found.
The New Zealand research and executive director and his colleagues studied the biggest office, retail and industrial building developments where physical work was considered imminent, had started or was nearing completion.
A vast new 20,000sq m Ikea Warehouse at Māngere was opened on December 17. Photo / Ikea
He carried out the study with colleagues Shang (Roger) Du and Bianca Cornforth and released the findings to the Herald. Industrial projects dominate new supply, the study found, comprising 65% of the total new pipeline net lettable area.
All up, the list has 504,000sq m of new industrial, retail, and commercial projects.
Ikea and DHL’s warehouses, each over 20,000sq m on Te Kapua Drive, will be completed in mid-2025, said the study, referring to the Landing precinct at Auckland Airport.
Cardinal’s second warehouse and Freight Direct’s warehouse are the two big developments in Drury being built now, commentary with the survey said.
Data centres account for 33% of new industrial supply. “Auckland has seven data centres being built now: four in west and three in north Auckland. Another data centre development potentially in the core CBD is still in the early stage,” commentary with the study said.
“Data centres are a notable part of the industrial supply pipeline. In our numbers, they account for nearly 84,000sq m of the 253,000sq m under construction.”
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
