Housing crisis: Record number of home consents granted in Auckland

By RNZ

A record number of consents for homes has been approved by Auckland Council this year, the highest since records began in the 1990s.

In September, the council issued permission for 1734 new residential builds in the city, bringing the total number of consents for new dwellings this year to 15,470.

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff said 56 per cent were townhouses and apartments, and the remainder were either standalone houses or retirement villages.

The high number of dwellings reflects progress in addressing housing supply, but house prices were still on the rise, which could be problematic for first home buyers, he said.

Council forecast house prices to drop by 7.5 per cent due to Covid, but the prices have "continued to increase maybe as high as 12 per cent over the year".

Goff said a buoyant housing market stimulates economic recovery and more supply would "dampen the inflationary impact of house prices".

Building more houses would help bring balance between supply and demand, which would slow the rate of increases and deal with housing shortages and affordability in due course, he said.

Of the 15,470 new consents so far this year, 11,000 are almost built.

September consents included dwellings in Drury, Takanini, Milldale, Dairy Flat, Māngere, Mount Roskill and Oranga.