Building consent data to be released this morning

PHOTO/FILE

Building consent data due out this morning could show an even more strengthened sector and a rapid escalation in work.

Statistics NZ is due to release the figures for January around the middle of the morning.

At the end of last year, consent for about $1.6 billion worth of work was being issued monthly. But January could be somewhat slower due to the holiday season.

Annual new dwelling consents for 2015 reached an 11-month high in December with 27,132 new dwellings getting sign-off throughout all of last year.

That was the highest annual total since 2004.

All eyes are on Auckland's house-starved market.

The latest figures for December released last month showed Auckland was one of the regions with the largest increases in new dwelling consents last year, up 21 per cent with 9251 new dwelling consents.