Rise in housing approvals

Housing approvals rose in July 2011, after adjusting for seasonal effects, Statistics New Zealand said today. Excluding apartment numbers, which tend to vary a lot each month, the number of new homes given building consents rose 6.3 percent from June. Including apartments gives a rise of 13 percent.

"The latest increase, excluding apartments, is enough to confirm a positive swing in the longer-term trend," industry and labour statistics manager Kathy Connolly said. "This now indicates that February was the low point in the number of homes being approved.

"The picture is similar when apartments are included, but one more month of strong data will be required to confirm that these numbers have also turned," added Ms Connolly.

As mentioned above, apartment numbers tend to vary a lot each month, and in July 2011 these were comparatively high. Of the 168 approved, 111 were assisted-living apartments. Adding apartments to the 1,035 other new homes, the total number for the month was 1,203.

In Canterbury, earthquake-related building consents totalled $32 million in July 2011, compared with $14 million in June and $28 million in May. The July consents comprise $26 million for non-residential work and $6 million for residential work (including 36 new homes, of which 28 are relocatable units intended to house displaced residents).

For July 2011 compared with July 2010:

residential consent values fell 14 percent to $420 million
non-residential consent values rose 17 percent to $343 million, led by a $105 million consent for work on Middlemore Hospital in Auckland
all building consent values fell 2.6 percent to $763 million.

Data for building consents is obtained from all territorial authorities. For more information on building consent statistics, see Building Consents Issued: July 2011.