September 19th, 2024
A report from Stats NZ has revealed a 7.9% drop in the number of new homes consented in the year ending March 2023 compared to the previous year, with a total of 46,924 new homes consented.
Stand-alone houses saw a significant decline of 23% in consents, totalling 19,668, while multi-unit homes experienced a 6.6% increase with 27,256 consents. Multi-unit homes encompass townhouses, apartments, retirement village units, and flats.
According to Michael Heslop, construction and property statistics manager at Stats NZ, the decrease in stand-alone house consents has been mostly offset by the growth of multi-unit homes throughout 2022. However, slower growth in multi-unit home consents in 2023 contributed to the overall annual decrease.
New home consents decreased across most regions, with the exception of Tasman, Marlborough, and the West Coast. The four regions with the highest number of new home consents in the year ending March 2023 were Auckland (20,312, down 5.4%), Canterbury (8,171, down 4.5%), Waikato (4,511, down 14%), and Wellington (3,607, down 6.0%).
The March 2023 quarter saw a 21% decline in new home consents compared to the March 2022 quarter, with a total of 9,719 new homes consented. The seasonally adjusted number of new home consents in the March 2023 quarter fell by 8.4% compared to the December 2022 quarter, following a 9.2% decline in the December 2022 quarter. Seasonal adjustment allows for more accurate comparisons between adjacent periods by removing the estimated effects of regular seasonal events.