Stuff Digital Edition

Consents for new home builds remain high, but levelling off

Miriam Bell

Consents for new homes have flattened off, but at near record levels, and this should support strong housing construction for the next year, experts say.

There were 50,653 new homes consented in the year ended August, up 8.9% on the same time last year, Stats NZ’s latest figures show.

But that figure was well down on May, when a record high of 51,015 consents were issued.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, consents have been volatile recently. They were down 1.6% in August, after a 5% increase in July and a 2.2% fall in June.

Stats NZ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said consents remained at high levels in most regions, particularly Canterbury which hit a new annual record.

There were 8691 consents issued in Canterbury, in the year to August, an increase of 23% on the same time last year.

That meant consents in the region were now well above the postearthquake rebuild peak of 7308 in the year ended December 2014, he said.

Northland and Southland also hit new annual records with 1549 and 485 respectively, while consents in Wellington were up 18% to 3875. Auckland had the highest number of consents at 21,463, up 7.7% on last year.

Heslop said the annual increase was driven by multi-unit homes, which included townhouses, apartments, retirement village units, and flats, and consent numbers could fluctuate from month to month due to large multi-unit projects.

But Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said while annual consent issuance remained elevated, on a monthly basis consents had been tracking sideways for a year.

‘‘There has been some month-tomonth volatility associated with ‘lumpy’ categories like retirement villages, but consents have failed to rise meaningfully above 4200 a month for any sustained period.’’

The construction sector was facing challenges, including falling house prices, rising interest rates and building costs, labour shortages, and buyer hesitancy, he said.

‘‘The related pressure on margins is likely to be a key reason for the low levels of confidence in the building sector.’’

In the latest ANZ Business Outlook Survey, residential construction intentions dropped to a new alltime low of negative 76.5 in September, down from negative 65.0 in August.

Ranchhod expected the tougher financial conditions would lead to consents trending down, but that the slowdown in actual construction would be gradual as building activity had not kept pace with the rise in consents.

‘‘There is still a large pipeline of planned projects. And while the scope for significant increases in building activity looks limited, the level of construction activity is likely to remain firm into the new year.’’

Business

en-nz

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282424173100827

Stuff Limited