Fewer new homes were bult in 2009 since records began in 1966 despite a pick up in numbers from March, Statistics New Zealand said today."In 2009, consents were issued for 14,425 new homes, including apartments. This is the lowest number issued for
Fewer new homes were bult in 2009 since records began in 1966 despite a pick up in numbers from March, Statistics New Zealand said today.
"In 2009, consents were issued for 14,425 new homes, including apartments. This is the lowest number issued for a calendar year since the series began in 1966 and is due to very low numbers at the beginning of the year," said business statistics manager Louise Holmes-Oliver.
The number of new houses authorised, excluding apartments, increased 45 percent since March, although the level was still considerably lower than it was before the middle of 2007.
Over the year, new dwellings, excluding apartments, fell 20 percent to 12,976 units, and apartments fell 37 percent to 1449.
The value of residential building consents was $5.1 billion, 18 percent lower than 2008. It was the lowest annual total since 2001.
The value of non-residential building consents in 2009 was $4.5b, a 0.2 percent increase compared with 2008.
The largest decreases were in factories and industrial buildings, down $187 million, farm buildings, down $186m, and storage buildings, down $172m.
The largest increases were in social, cultural, and religious buildings, up $273m, hostels and boarding houses, up $186m, and hospitals and nursing homes, up $105m.
For the month of December building consents were issued for 1260 new housing units and 93 apartments. The value of residential building consents for the month was $494m, an increase of 12 percent compared with December 2008, while the value of non-residential building consents was $404m, an increase of 5.6 percent.
