New Zealand building consents show shift away from stand-alone dwellings

New Zealand’s growing urban population has seen the construction of medium-density housing almost overtake the building of stand-alone dwellings.

Approvals for townhouses, flats and units rose 27% to a record 20,793 in 2022, Statistics New Zealand said Thursday in Wellington. Consents for houses fell 16% to 21,400.

New Zealand’s largest cities, particularly Auckland, are becoming more populated but the space to build a house with a garden is severely restricted. Authorities are encouraging people to live in apartments and townhouses close to public transport to reduce traffic congestion and squeeze more residents into urban areas.

The total number of approvals issued across all building types in 2022 rose 1.1% to 49,538. Yet the total floor area for these approvals fell 4.8%.

The median floor area of new homes consented in 2022 was 126 square meters (1,356 square feet), down from 140 square meters in 2021, the statistics agency said.

That decline “can largely be attributed to the increase in the number of multi-unit homes consented over this period,” it said.