The growth is driven by the rise in multi-unit homes, especially in Auckland
Some 50,614 new homes have been consented in the year to July, up 12% from the same period last year, fresh Stats NZ figures showed.
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“The number of new homes consented remains high due to the rise in multi-unit homes, especially in Auckland,” said Michael Heslop, construction and property statistics manager.
Nationally, there were 27,287 multi-unit homes consented in the year to July – that’s 35% higher than the previous year. Over the same period, 23,327 standalone houses were consented, which was 6.4% lower than the prior year.
Multi-unit homes include townhouses, apartments, retirement village units, and flats.
“Since the year ended March 2022, multi-unit homes have made up a larger proportion of the homes consented annually compared with stand-alone houses,” Heslop said. “The annual number of multi-unit homes consented has increased nearly nine-fold in the last decade.”
Auckland led the growth in multi-unit homes, with 16,228 consents in the year ended July 2022, up 32% compared to the year ended July 2012. This was followed by Canterbury with 3,457 consents (up 70%), Wellington with 2,511 (up 50%), Waikato with 1,887 (up 27%), and Otago with 1,069 (up 51%).
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When it comes to the number of new homes consented, both Auckland and Wellington reached new annual records in the year to July 2022 (compared with the year ended July 2021), with 21,743 (up 13%) and 3,927 (up 20%), respectively. Also posting the highest number of new homes consented were Canterbury with 8,556 (up 26%), Waikato 5,021 (up 4.7%), and Otago 2,473 (up 20%).
Canterbury was the region with the highest number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents in the year ended July 2022, with 13.2. This was followed by Auckland with 12.7 and Otago with 10.
The national number of homes consented per 1,000 residents was 9.9 for the year ended July 2022. This compared with 13.4 in the year ended December 1973 which was the record national number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, new homes consented in July 2022 rose 5.0% compared with June 2022. This follows a seasonally adjusted fall of 2.2% in June 2022.
The number of stand-alone houses consented increased 0.4% in July 2022, following a 5.5% fall in June 2022, in seasonally adjusted terms, NZ Stats figures showed.
