New dwelling consents fall seas/adj 4.5 pct in June

NZPA

Friday 29th July 2011

The seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings authorised, excluding apartments, fell 4.5 percent in June, after rising in each of the three previous months.

Despite the decline in the latest month, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said the trend in new dwellings, excluding apartments, had shown a small increase recently, following a year of decline.

Although it appeared to have reached a turning point, at least one more month of growth was needed before an increase could be confirmed, SNZ said today.

The 995 new dwelling units, including apartments, for which consents were authorised last month were 28 percent down on the number a year earlier.

Excluding apartments, the 935 new dwellings approved were 29 percent down, while the 60 new apartment units were 5.3 percent more than in June 2010.

The value of residential building consents in June was $149m or 29 percent lower than a year earlier at $360m, while the value of non-residential consents was up 4.3 percent at $237m.

The value of residential consents in the year ended June was 14 percent down from the previous year at $4.93 billion, while for non-residential buildings it was $3.7 billion, down 4.3 percent.

In Canterbury, quake-related consents worth $14m were identified in June, including $8m of non-residential consents, while the residential share included eight new dwellings, none of which were relocatable units.

Since last September, when the first quake hit Canterbury, about 300 quake-related consents were approved with a value of $76m. That included 97 quake-related dwellings of which 67 were relocatable units intended to house displaced residents, SNZ said.

The number of new dwelling units authorised in Canterbury in June was 99 down on a year earlier at 133, while in Wellington the number was down 96 units to 65, and in Auckland it was down 53 to 269.

For the year to June, Canterbury was down 598 units to 2373, Waikato was down 433 units to 1650 and Auckland was down 262 units to 3394.

The value of consents for all buildings fell 19 percent from a year earlier to $597m in June, while for the year it was down 10 percent to $8.64b.

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