Consents for new houses have been decreasing steadily.
In a rare reversal, Auckland was pushed out of top place for new residential dwellings last month -- ceding its usual dominant position to Canterbury.
Auckland had 463 new dwelling consents in February, similar to levels of the previous three months but well down on the numbers for
much of the rest of the past year.
In contrast, Canterbury's 474 consents were higher than at any time in the past year, during which the region only topped 400 in two other months.
Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) which published the consents data today said Auckland's drop of 328 units from February 2006 was mainly due to a drop in apartment numbers in Auckland City.
Conversely Canterbury's increase of 158 units last month from a year earlier was largely because of an increase in apartment consents.
Nationally, apartment unit numbers were prone to largely monthly fluctuations.
For the 12 months before last month, Auckland accounted for 28 per cent of the new dwelling units approved in the country, Canterbury 16 per cent and Waikato 13 per cent.
For the country as a whole the trend in new dwelling consents had been showing a decline since August, SNZ said.
Consents were issued for 2092 dwellings last month, compared with 2254 in February 2006, but up from 1880 and 1883 in January and December.
The peak in the past year was in September, when 2545 consents were authorised.
The 229 apartment units authorised nationwide last month compared with 540 consents issued in February 2006.
The value of residential building consents last month was $597 million, up 6.2 per cent from a year earlier, while the value of non-residential consents was down 5.3 per cent to $273 million.
The trend for the value of residential consents had shown a decline since August 2006, SNZ said.
The trend for the value of non-residential building consents remained high and it was too early to confirm an apparent softening in the trend.
For the year to February, 25,770 new dwelling consents were issued, down 1.4 per cent from the previous February year.
The value of consents issued for all buildings for the year was up 2.9 per cent to $11.2 billion.
- NZPA
