Apartments give rise to 16% boost in NZ residential building consents

The national construction sector finished 2014 on a seven-year high, with residential building consents up 16% on the back of apartments built.

In the midst of what is being described as an ongoing housing crisis, 2014 booked the highest annual number of new dwellings seen in seven years, at 24,680. Value was up 20% to $9.5 billion.

However, the data was underpinned by apartment sales, which when stripped out left just a 1.6% gain to overall new dwelling consents issued.

Combined with commercial consents, the total value was $14.6 billion for the year.

The new dwelling data includes houses, apartments and retirement village units, the latter exploding at an exponential rate with rapid expansion by Summerset, Ryman Healthcare and Metlifecare.

Unsurprisingly, and reflecting the past year's Real Estate Institute of New Zealand data on major demand and growth in Auckland and Canterbury, those centres respectively booked gains in dwellings of 20%, to 7595, and 27% to 7308.

Auckland and Canterbury accounted for 60% of new dwellings during the year.

Otago, for December 2013, had 88 consents valued at $36 million, and for last December 92 consents were issued, valued at $30 million.

For the December of both years, Central Otago had 17 consents issued, while Queenstown Lakes had 39.

However, for 2014, Central Otago had 180 building consents issued, while Queenstown Lakes had 623.

See more here:
Apartments give rise to 16% boost in NZ residential building consents