Residential building consents rise
Auckland apartments lift bulding consent demand.
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Breaking two months of waning fortunes, house building consents rose in October, led by Auckland, where approvals for apartments helped drive new homes to their highest level in almost 11 years.
Seasonally adjusted consents rose 5.1% to 2339 in October, following drops of more than 5% in both September and August, Statistics New Zealand figures reveal.
Consents soared about 20% in June. Actual consents rose 8.1% to 2349 in the 12 months ended October 31.
Consents for apartments more than doubled from September to 244, while consents for houses fell 2.8% to 1732.
In Auckland, where increased migration has led to a shortage of housing, house consents jumped 36% in October from the same month last year to 805, although on a trend basis they were unchanged from September.
In the Waikato, one of the “spill over” regions benefiting from Auckland's overheated market, consents jumped 34% to 259, while for the Bay of Plenty consents soared 71% to 205.
Canterbury recorded the biggest drop, down 29% to 489, suggesting earthquake-related demand may be abating.
"An apartment-induced lift in October residential building consents masks relatively muted underlying demand," ASB Bank senior economist Jane Turner says.
"Some of this weakness stems from Canterbury, which is to be expected. However, soft trend growth in Auckland house building demand is a development to watch closely given Auckland's ongoing housing shortages."
Economists are awaiting this month's building consent data for any early signs of reaction to Reserve Bank measures to quell the risk from a housing bubble.
The central bank introduced Auckland-specific lending restrictions this month, while the government's more stringent enforcement of taxing speculators' capital gains began last month.
The actual value of building work consented in October was $1.4 billion, reflecting a 2.4% gain from a year earlier in residential work to $898 million and a 4.9% increase in non-residential work to $479 million.
(BusinessDesk)
Jonathan Underhill
Mon, 30 Nov 2015
Mon, 30 Nov 2015
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Residential building consents rise
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