Residential building soars, non-residential suffers

Residential building activity will soon pick up with consents issued last month reaching the highest level they have been at in more than an entire year.

The latest Statistics New Zealand research shows that in September, there were $480 million worth of residential building consents issued.

However the non-residential sector’s consent value sank to $257 million which is the lowest seen since January 2007.

Overall, total consents issued were valued at $737 million which is down 27% from the same time last year.

The non-residential categories of new storage facilities and hotels had the biggest decrease in September from the same time last year, down $156 million and $128 million respectively.

More social, cultural and religious buildings were consented in September than last year, up $190 million, and new office building consents were up $185 million.

In what could be termed spring fever, the seasonally adjusted rise in residential consents is up 3.3%.

There were consents issued for 1,275 new residential buildings in September including 155 apartments, the most since July 2008.

The area with the biggest increase of consents was Auckland, up by 160 dwellings to 427.

Wellington had the biggest drop of new consents, down 208 to 80. This was followed by Northland down 92 to 63.

Looking at the year to September 2009, overall the value of consents was down 27% on the same time last year at $4,939 million for 13,616 dwellings. For the same period non-residential consents were worth $4,533 million.