The annual number of homes consented in New Zealand fell 3.8% in the year ended May 2025. Photo / Fiona Goodall
The annual number of homes consented in New Zealand fell 3.8% in the year ended May 2025. Photo / Fiona Goodall
The number of new homes consented for building fell 3.8% in the year to May 2025, Stats NZ said today.
There were 33,530 new homes consented over that period, down from 34,851 in the year ended May 2024.
May’s annual consent total is the second-lowest for any month since theend of 2018.
“The record for the annual number of new homes consented was 51,015 in the year ended May 2022. While consent numbers fell sharply after that peak, they have levelled out over the past year,” Stats NZ economic indicators spokeswoman Michelle Feyen said.
Gareth Kiernan, director and chief forecaster at Infometrics, said a recovery in residential construction remains constrained.
“We continue to see a slight softening trend in the numbers, particularly for townhouses, with standalone house consents under a little less pressure,” he said.
“Lower mortgage rates continue to provide limited stimulus to the housing market and the lack of upward pressure on house prices remains a constraint on any recovery in residential construction.”
Stats NZ said consents for standalone houses in the year ended May 2025 rose 2.4% to 15,678, while multi-unit consents fell 8.6% to 17,852.
Of the multi-unit homes consented, 14,088 were townhouses, flats and units (down 11%), 2137 were apartments (up 6.2%) and 1627 were retirement village units (down 4.5%).
On a monthly basis, there were 3151 new homes consented in May 2025, down 0.8% compared with May 2024, Stats NZ said.
The seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented in May rose 10% compared with April and follows a drop of 15% in April compared with March.
Kiernan said perhaps the best news for residential construction in recent months was the stabilisation of consent numbers in Auckland.
Auckland represented 41% of nationwide consents over the last year, he said.
“However, lower net migration numbers and the region’s relatively weak economy will limit the scope for any pick-up in Auckland consent numbers in the near term.”
