Residential consents down in January

In January 2011, the value of residential building consents fell 19 percent compared with January 2010, Statistics New Zealand said today. (Note that data in this release is for the month before the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake.) Although there was a small rise in non-residential consents (up 2.3 percent), the value of consents for all buildings fell 11 percent to $537 million.

“January commonly has a low value of consents issued when compared with other months, but at $537 million, the latest value for all buildings is the lowest for any month since February 2002,” business statistics manager, Louise Holmes-Oliver said.

In January 2011, consents were issued for 90 new apartment units and 777 other homes. This gives a total of 867 new homes authorised, down from January 2010, and the second lowest total in any month since the series began. The long-term trend indicates the number of new homes authorised has been in decline since early 2010 – and is down 23 percent since then.

Fewer new homes were authorised in 12 of New Zealand’s 16 regions in January 2011 compared with January 2010. Numbers fell 17 percent in both the North and South Islands.

In Canterbury, 30 consents related to the September 2010 earthquakes were identified in January 2011, including five new dwellings. The total value of these was $4.5 million.

Geoff Bascand 7 March 2011

Government Statistician