New Zealand December Building Permits Climb 2.3%

(RTTNews) - The total number of building permits issued in New Zealand advanced a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent on month in December, Statistics New Zealand said on Friday - standing at 2,538.

That follows the upwardly revised 2.4 percent increase in November (originally 1.8 percent).

The actual value of building work consented in December was NZ$1.6 billion.

Residential work was up NZ$184 million (22 percent on year) to NZ$1.0 billion. Non-residential work was up NZ$124 million (29 percent) to NZ$555 million.

Individually, consents were issued for 1,661 houses, 427 apartments, 291 townhouses and 159 retirement village units.

For all of 2015, more than 27,000 new dwellings were consented - up about 2,400 from 2014, following an average increase of 3,700 over each of the three previous years.

"Last year was the ninth-highest year on record for dwelling consents, beaten only by the building booms in the 1970s and early 2000s," business indicators manager Clara Eatherley said.

Annual dwelling consents have increased by about 13,000 since the historic low in 2011.

"The largest increases in 2015 were for townhouses and apartments. Consents for houses also increased, while retirement village units decreased very slightly," Eatherley said.

The regions with the largest increases were Auckland, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty. The region with the largest decrease was Canterbury, down from an all-time high in 2014.

Auckland accounted for about one-third of the national total in 2015, with Canterbury accounting for about one-quarter.

"On average, every working day in 2015 saw another 109 dwellings consented, including 37 in Auckland and 26 in Canterbury," Eatherley said.