New housing consents issued smash records as we go over 50,000 for the first time

Never before have we gained consents for this many houses in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied

House building consents continue to smash records, with numbers up 24 per cent in the year to March to hit 50,858 residential units for the first time.

Stats NZ said never before had New Zealand exceeded 50,000 consents issued in a year - and most consents result in new buildings.

Michael Heslop, construction and property statistics manager, cited apartment numbers in particular for driving up activity levels.

There were 25,475 multi-unit homes consented in the year to March, up 40 per cent annually, he said.

Today, the Herald has published The Front Page on the exodus of workers from various sectors including construction where demand has never been stronger.

Listen at this link to that podcast.

Heslop said the number of stand-alone houses consented rose 12 per cent to 25,383.

"The number of multi-unit homes consented has steadily increased over the past decade, but this is the first 12-month period where there have been more multi-unit homes consented than stand-alone houses," Heslop said.

Multi-unit homes include townhouses, apartments, retirement village units and granny flats.

In March, 5303 new homes were consented, the highest monthly number on record. Of these, 3000 were multi-unit homes and 2303 were stand-alone houses.

The 3000 multi-unit homes included 2172 townhouses, flats, and units, 616 apartments; and 212 retirement village units.

Four regions had record numbers of new homes consented in the year: Auckland with 21,477 consents which was up 23 per cent annually, Wellington with 3836 consents, up 26 per cent, Canterbury with 8557 consents up 41 per cent and Otago with 2506, up 34 per cent.

Almost $1 billion of non-residential building work was consented in March: Auckland with $430m, Wellington $108m, Canterbury $104m and the Waikato $78m.

The Herald reported yesterday that construction is New Zealand's fourth biggest employer at 280,000-plus people.

Yet the country is still short of people because growth is so strong.

By 2024, national annual residential and commercial construction values will hit $48.3b, according to the National Construction Pipeline Report 2021, up from $45b in 2018.

Impediments that could prevent activity in the residential sector from growing in the short term include access to skilled workers and access to materials, the report said.