Councils would be required by law to free up land for development. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Councils would be required by law to free up land for development. Photo / Paul Estcourt
House-building approval numbers jumped 16 per cent last year when consents were granted for 24,680 new dwellings.
Statistics New Zealand has just released the monthly figures which showed the annual number of new dwellings consented was now at its highest level since 2007 and approvals were up 16 per centlast year compared to 2013.
Neil Kelly, business indicators manager, said that was mainly driven by Auckland and Canterbury but Waikato also saw a big increase in activity.
The regions which consented the most new dwellings last year were Auckland with 7,595 new dwelling consents (up 20 per cent on 2013) Canterbury with 7,308 consents (up 27 percent) and the Waikato with 2,369 consents (up 5.5 percent).
The total value of building work consented in 2014 was $14.6 billion which was up 21 per cent on 2013: $9.5 billion of residential work and $5.1 billion of non-residential work.
