By BRIAN FALLOW
The number of planning consents issued for new dwellings fell to 1598 last month, down 24 per cent on May.
The fall continues an 11-month trend, although the rate of decline has been slowing.
May's figure, boosted by twice the usual number of apartment consents, was unexpectedly high.
But the June figure is still 7 per cent down on the monthly average for the past year.
A total of 10,315 new dwellings were authorised in the first six months of 2000, down from 13,929 in the previous six months and 12,448 in the first half of last year, Statistics New Zealand said.
The $1.8 billion worth of housing work builders have had for the first half of this year is 19 per cent less than in the second half of 1999, and 9 per cent less than in the same period last year.
Residential construction was a significant contributor to the March quarter's 1 per cent gross domestic product growth, and the expectation that it would decline is one reason economists are forecasting reduced - and in some cases negative - GDP growth in the June quarter.
Meanwhile, Quotable Value (the former Valuation New Zealand) says in a report on the housing market in the June quarter that the over-riding feeling in the property sector is that the market is only part way through a particularly flat period.
The number of house sales in the June quarter was only 1 per cent up on the March quarter.
The national average sale price of $180,000 was 4 per cent lower than in the same period last year.
In Greater Auckland, the average sale price was $255,000, down $20,000 or 7.5 per cent on the June 1999 quarter.
New-home total takes a tumble
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