Building consents up in November

Statistics NZ says the number of building consents issued for new homes rose 3.1 per cent in November.

Building consent stats released this morning show a 3.1 per cent jump in the number of new homes authorised for construction in November - the highest level since May 2008.

Statistics NZ says the number, which excludes apartment consents, follows on from an 11 per cent jump in October.

When the volatile apartment category is included, the number of new housing units rose 1.2 per cent in the month.

"Although the trend for new housing units has been increasing since March 2009," business statistics

manager Louise Holmes-Oliver says,"it is still considerably lower than the levels seen before mid-2007".

Residential building consents were issued for 1,458 new housing units and 42 new apartments.

The value of residential building consents was $537 million, which is increase of 18 per cent compared with November 2008. The value of non-residential building consents was $389 million, a fall of 2.3 per cent.

Statistics NZ says the decrease in non-residential value was partly offset by a large increase in the hospitals and nursing homes category, due to consents for several hospital projects.