Housing consents continue to fall

Building consent statistics for August 2008 show the trend for the number of new housing units has been falling since mid-2007, Statistics New Zealand said today. This trend has fallen 42 percent since then.

The trend for the total value of residential building consents has also continued to decline since mid-2007, and has fallen 33 percent since then.

There were 1,328 new housing units authorised in August 2008. This is the lowest monthly total since December 2000.

Residential building consents issued in August 2008 were valued at $457 million, down $308 million from August 2007. Non-residential building consents were valued at $362 million, down $36 million from August 2007.

For the year ended August 2008, the value of consents issued for residential buildings fell 13 percent, while the value for non-residential buildings rose 6.0 percent, compared with the year ended August 2007.

Building consent statistics for six recent months have been revised to include late data.