Building consents in the past 12 months totalled 29,310 in the North Island with Auckland, the Hawke’s Bay and Taranaki achieving record levels of growth.

According to Stats NZ, in the 12 months to the end of November 38,624 new dwellings were consented, up 4.2% compared to the previous 12 months. The national annual total is the highest since July 1974, when 38,904 new homes were consented.

In November 3,881 new dwellings were consented. Consent levels in 2020 have been driven by strong growth of townhouses and stand alone houses, with weaker levels for apartments and retirement units and villages. Despite COVID-19 interruptions, consents in Auckland are up significantly with the number of consents per 1,000 residents growing from 0.7 to 9.5 in the November 2020 year.

In the November 2020 year, commercial consents totalled $7 billion, down 6% from the last 12 months. Education buildings, storage buildings and office, administration, and public transport buildings were again the commercial building types with the highest values.

Image: Photo by Tolu Olubode on Unsplash

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