New Zealand Building Consents Climb 3.6% On Month In September

(RTTNews) - The total number of building consents issued in New Zealand advanced a seasonally adjusted 3.6 percent on month in September, Statistics New Zealand said on Monday - coming in at 3,605.

That follows the downwardly revised 0.2 percent increase in August (originally 0.3 percent).

Consents were up 3.5 percent on year at 37,725.

The annual value of non-residential building work consented was NZ$7.0 billion, down 7.6 percent from the September 2019 year.

Individually, dwellings were consented for 2,052 stand-alone houses, 1,032 townhouses, flats, and units, 403 apartments and 118 retirement village units.

By region, the numbers of new dwellings consented in the year ended September 2020 were: 15,470 in Auckland - up 5.7 percent; 4,042 in Waikato - down 2.8 percent; 3,053 in Wellington - up 5.4 percent; 5,957 in rest of North Island - up 2.7 percent; 5,618 in Canterbury - up 8.1 percent; and 3,582 in rest of South Island - down 4.8 percent.

In the year ended September 2020, non-residential building consents totaled NZ$7.0 billion, down 7.6 percent from the September 2019 year.

In the September 2020 year, the non-residential building types with the highest values were: storage buildings - NZ$1.1 billion (up 16 percent); education buildings - NZ$1.1 billion (down 5.8 percent); and offices, administration, and public transport buildings - NZ$958 million (down 3.9 percent).