Building consents rise but Auckland far behind the eight ball
Auckland building permits still lag.
Although residential building consents rose 1.8% in November on the back of a big jump in retirement village units, the building boom is doing little to solve Auckland’s chronic housing shortage.
While developers and councils are trying to cope with pent-up demand for new housing in Auckland, the latest figures from Statistics New Zealand show building consents were almost unchanged at 966 in November from a year earlier.
"Annual residential consents issued in Auckland remained practically unchanged – although November 2015 was a big month for consents, so was November 2014, which now falls out of the annual analysis," Westpac economist David Norman says.
"Supply remains well below the 11,000 dwellings we estimate are required each year for Auckland to meet its long-term supply shortage."
Across the country seasonally adjusted consents rose for a second month to 2377 in November from 2363 in October, even as approvals for new houses fell 0.3% to 1652.
On an unadjusted basis, house consents climbed 17% to 2831 from November a year earlier, led by retirement village units more than doubling to 321.
Residential building permits were 9.1% ahead in the year ended November to 26,793.
The value of all construction rose 22% to $1.62 billion in November from a year earlier, and was up 12% to $16.5 billion on an annual basis.
The lack of supply in the country's two-biggest cities spurred rapid price gains, and while those have moderated in Christchurch, Auckland housing is still near record highs.
Canterbury consents at 573 were down from 726 in the same month of 2014. Wellington permits more than tripled to 328 in November from a year earlier, while Waikato consents climbed to 284 from 181.
The value of non-residential building consents rose 25% to $531 million in November from the same month a year earlier, for an annual increase of 15% to $5.8 billion.
(BusinessDesk)
Paul McBeth
Mon, 11 Jan 2016
Mon, 11 Jan 2016
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Building consents rise but Auckland far behind the eight ball
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