PHOTO: Less people are building new homes because of how expensive it is to build among other factors. FILE
The decline in new home consents shows no signs of abating, as the latest figures from Stats NZ reveal a 20% decrease in issuance during the June quarter compared to the same period last year.
In the June quarter, only 9,888 new homes were consented, marking the lowest level since June 2020, according to economist Sabrina Swerdloff from Infometrics.
On an annual basis, there were 44,529 consents issued across the country up to June, reflecting a 12% decline compared to the previous year, and falling well short of the record high of 51,015 recorded in the year to May 2022.
Michael Heslop, the construction and property statistics manager at Stats NZ, noted that the latest annual figure was similar to that of 2021 when 44,331 new homes were consented.
The decline in consents was evident for both stand-alone houses and multi-unit homes for the second consecutive quarter. Stand-alone house consents were down 23%, while multi-unit home consents dropped by 3.0%.
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Multi-unit homes include various types of housing such as townhouses, apartments, retirement village units, and flats.
Except for Gisborne, Tasman, Marlborough, and the West Coast, all regions experienced fewer consents for new homes over the year. The growth in those regions was driven by an increase in multi-unit homes consented.
Despite annual declines of 12% and 9.2% respectively, Auckland and Canterbury remained the regions with the highest number of consents.
However, there was a glimmer of hope in June, as seasonally adjusted figures indicated a 3.5% rise in new home consents compared to May, providing a modest pause in the overall decline.