Total $58m issued in Tauranga building consents

Tauranga City Council issued a total $58.1 million in building consents during February, new data shows.

Priority One's latest building consents report showed a surge of construction activity during the first two months of 2019.

"We thought at the end of last year the construction sector had plateaued, but that does not seem to be the case based on 2019 so far," Priority One projects manager Annie Hill said.

Both Tauranga and the Western Bay of Plenty councils set new records for the value of consents issued.

Compared to the same time last year, Tauranga City Council issued a 17 per cent higher value of building consents, while the Western Bay was a massive 52 per cent ahead.

Overall, the combined sub-region issued 26 per cent more building consents by value than for the first two months of 2018.

However, things quietened down in February following a record January month when the value of building consents reached $83m.

There were 182 building consents issued in January, totalling $58.1m in value.

Of the 182 consents, 69 were single/dwelling consents valued at $25.8m, 37 commercial consents valued at $27.1m and 2 government/community consents valued at $$430,000.

Consents for residential new builds slowed slightly from January ($26m vs $29m), however, there was a significant drop in commercial consents ($27m vs $49m).

Western Bay District Council had a very strong start to the year for the value of building
consents issued.

After a robust January month, during February it set a new record for the value of consents ever issued in a month at $41m.

There was a $3m rise in residential new builds from last month, bringing the total value to $20m - just short of the two-year record of nearly $21m.