Building Consents Issued: April 2016
Embargoed until 10:45am – 31 May 2016

Key facts
In April 2016, building consents were issued for 2,361 new dwellings, comprising:
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1,742 houses
335 townhouses, flats, and units
259 retirement village units
25 apartments.

The seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings consented rose 6.6 percent in April 2016, following a
fall of 9.7 percent in the previous month. The seasonally adjusted number has fluctuated in recent
months, and the trend is easing.

The actual value of building work consented in April 2016 was $1.4 billion. For April 2016 compared with
April 2015:
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residential work was up $191 million (25 percent) to $948 million
non-residential work was up $40 million (9.4 percent) to $459 million.

Liz MacPherson, Government Statistician
ISSN 1178-0231
31 May 2016

 Commentary
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New dwellings rebound in April
New dwellings up in 11 of the 16 regions
Canterbury earthquake-related consents total $3.6 billion
Non-residential building consents valued at $459 million
Consents for all buildings total $1.4 billion in April

Figures given are not adjusted for seasonal fluctuations unless otherwise stated. Values include
GST and are not adjusted for inflation.

New dwellings rebound in April
In April 2016, a total of 2,361 new dwellings were consented, comprising:
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1,742 houses
335 townhouses, flats, and units
259 retirement village units
25 apartments (the lowest number since March 2013).

The seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings rose 6.6 percent, following a 9.7 percent fall in
March. The seasonally adjusted number has fluctuated in recent months, and the trend is easing.
For houses only, the seasonally adjusted number rose 15 percent, following a 3.6 percent fall in
March. The trend is increasing.

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 New dwellings up in 11 of the 16 regions
In 11 of the 16 regions, the number of new dwellings consented in April 2016 was higher than in
April 2015. The regions with the largest increases were:
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Canterbury – up 229 (54 percent) to 656, due to a jump in retirement village units
Bay of Plenty – up 58 (49 percent) to 176
Northland – up 57 (124 percent) to 103.

The region with the largest decrease was Auckland – down 213 (23 percent) to 699, due to a
decrease in apartments.
The national number of new dwellings consented in April 2016 was 249 more than in April 2015
(up 12 percent).

The trend for the number of new dwellings consented in Auckland reached an 11-year high in
late 2015, but has tailed off since then.
The trend for Waikato is at around its highest level since late 2007. The trend for Wellington has
generally been decreasing over the past year. The trend for the rest of the North Island is at its
highest level since early 2008.
The trend for Canterbury has fallen 13 percent since the series peak in late 2014, but appears to
have stabilised, and is still well above the historical average level. The trend for the rest of the
South Island appears to be decreasing.
Note: Trend movements, particularly for recent months, may be revised when we add future
months to the series.

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 Canterbury earthquake-related consents total $3.6 billion
Since September 2010, $3.6 billion of Canterbury's consents have been identified as
earthquake-related building consents. This includes consents for 4,395 new dwellings.
Not all earthquake-related consents can be identified. For comparison, total figures for
Canterbury from September 2010 to April 2016 were:
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$17 billion of building consents (all construction)
28,851 new dwellings consented.

In April 2016, the value of consents identified as earthquake-related in Canterbury was $51
million (of a total of $400 million for Canterbury). This included 64 new dwellings (of a total of
656).

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 Non-residential building consents valued at $459 million
The value of consents for non-residential buildings in April 2016 was $459 million – up $40
million (9.4 percent) from April 2015. The largest contributors to this month’s value were:
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shops, restaurants, and bars – $90 million
storage buildings – $86 million
education buildings – $78 million.

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 The regions that contributed the highest value of non-residential building consents in April 2016
were:
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Canterbury – $165 million
Auckland – $139 million
Waikato – $38 million
Bay of Plenty – $35 million.

Consents for all buildings total $1.4 billion in April
The total value of building work consented in April 2016 was $1.4 billion. This comprised $948
million of residential work, and $459 million of non-residential work.
For the year ended April 2016, compared with the year ended April 2015, the value of buildings
consented increased for:
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all buildings – up $2.1 billion (14 percent) to $17 billion
residential buildings – up $1.5 billion (16 percent) to $11 billion
non-residential buildings – up $568 million (11 percent) to $5.9 billion.

Data for building consents is obtained from all territorial authorities in New Zealand.
For more detailed data, see the Excel tables in the 'Downloads' box.

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 Related links
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Next release
Past releases
Data quality
Related information

Next release
Building Consents Issued: May 2016 will be released on 30 June 2016.
Subscribe to information releases, including this one, by completing the online subscription form.
The release calendar lists all information releases by date of release.

Past releases
Building Consents Issued has links to past releases.

Data quality
Building Consents Issued – DataInfo+
General methodology used to produce building consent statistics from March 2015 onwards.
Building Consents Issued concepts from March 2015 onwards – DataInfo+
Definitions of terms used in this release.
Principles and protocols for producers of Tier 1 statistics
Statistics in this release have been produced in accordance with the Official Statistics System
principles and protocols for producers of Tier 1 statistics for quality. They conform to the
Statistics NZ Methodological Standard for Reporting of Data Quality.

Related information
Earthquake-related building consents in Canterbury
Summarises Canterbury consents identified as earthquake-related. This table is updated
monthly.
Value of Building Work Put in Place – information releases
Statistics that estimate the actual dollar value of work put in place on construction jobs within
New Zealand (quarterly). It includes information by building type, and deflated values.
Copyright and terms of use
Includes our copyright, attribution, and liability statements.

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 Contacts
For media enquiries contact:
Neil Kelly
Christchurch 03 964 8957
Email: info@stats.govt.nz
For technical information contact:
Mark Darbyshire or Danielle Barwick
Christchurch 03 964 8700
Email: info@stats.govt.nz
For general enquiries contact our Information Centre:
Phone: 0508 525 525 (toll-free in New Zealand)
+64 4 931 4600 (outside New Zealand)
Email: info@stats.govt.nz
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 Tables
See the following Excel tables in the 'Downloads' box on this page. If you have problems viewing
the files, see opening files and PDFs.
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Building consents issued
Number of new dwellings consented
Number and value of new dwellings consented, by region
Number of new dwellings consented, trend for selected regions
Number of new dwellings consented, by selected territorial authority and Auckland wards
Value of building consents issued, actual and trend values

Machine-readable zipped csv files
Machine-readable zipped csv files are also available. This is a way for technical users to
download our data.

Access more data on Infoshare
Infoshare allows you to organise data in the way that best meets your needs. You can view the
resulting tables onscreen or download them.
Use Infoshare
For this release, select the following category from the Infoshare homepage:
Subject category: Industry sectors
Group: Building Consents - BLD

Next release
Building Consents Issued: May 2016 will be released on 30 June 2016.

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