Building Consents Issued: August 2016
Embargoed until 10:45am – 30 September 2016

Key facts
In August 2016, building consents were issued for 2,834 new dwellings, comprising:
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2,015 houses
515 townhouses, flats, and units
232 apartments
72 retirement village units.

The seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings consented fell 1.0 percent. The trend is increasing.
In the year ended August 2016, 29,627 new dwellings were consented – up 14 percent from the August
2015 year.

The actual value of building work consented in the August 2016 month was $1.7 billion. For August 2016
compared with August 2015:
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residential work was up $319 million (37 percent) to $1.2 billion
non-residential work was down $136 million (20 percent) to $534 million.

Liz MacPherson, Government Statistician
ISSN 1178-0231
30 September 2016

 Commentary
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New dwellings down in August
New dwellings up in 11 of 16 regions
Annual dwelling consents up 14 percent
Canterbury earthquake-related consents total $3.8 billion
Non-residential building consents valued at $534 million
Consents for all buildings total $1.7 billion in August
Find data tables

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

New dwellings down in August
In August 2016, a total of 2,834 new dwellings were consented, comprising:
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2,015 houses
515 townhouses, flats, and units
232 apartments
72 retirement village units.

The seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings fell 1.0 percent, following an 8.1 percent fall in
July and a 20 percent rise in June. The trend is increasing.
For houses only, the seasonally adjusted number rose 4.4 percent, following a 5.8 percent fall in
July. The trend is increasing.
Both trends are at their highest level since mid-2004, having increased substantially since the
low point in early 2011.

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 New dwellings up in 11 of 16 regions
In 11 of the 16 regions, the number of new dwellings consented in August 2016 was higher than
in August 2015.
The regions with the largest increases were:
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Auckland – up 229 (31 percent) to 970
Otago – up 88 (85 percent) to 192
Waikato – up 81 (35 percent) to 314
Bay of Plenty – up 75 (53 percent) to 217.

Nationally, 2,834 new dwellings were consented – up 543 (24 percent) from August 2015.

In August compared with July, after removing monthly volatility, the trend for the number of new
dwellings consented increased:
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3.3 percent in Auckland
0.5 percent in Waikato
3.4 percent in Wellington
1.8 percent in the rest of the North Island
1.3 percent in Canterbury
4.5 percent in the rest of the South Island.

The trend for Canterbury has decreased 13 percent since the series peak in late 2014, but
remains at a historically high level.
Note: Trend movements, particularly for recent months, may be revised when we add future
months to the series.

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 Annual dwelling consents up 14 percent
In the year ended August 2016, 29,627 new dwellings were consented, up 14 percent from the
August 2015 year. This is the highest total since March 2005. Most growth was in Auckland and
nearby regions, while the number in Canterbury decreased.
The annual total consisted of:
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21,188 houses (up 16 percent from the August 2015 year)
3,946 townhouses, flats, and units (up 9.7 percent)
2,409 apartments (up 8.8 percent)
2,084 retirement village units (up 13 percent).

4

 Canterbury earthquake-related consents total $3.8 billion
Since September 2010, $3.8 billion of Canterbury’s consents have been identified as
earthquake-related building consents. This includes consents for 4,617 new dwellings.
Not all earthquake-related consents can be identified. For comparison, total figures for
Canterbury from September 2010 to August 2016 were:
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$19 billion of building consents (all construction)
31,047 new dwellings consented.

In August 2016, the value of consents identified as earthquake-related in Canterbury was $36
million (of a total of $369 million for Canterbury). This included 57 new dwellings (of a total of
568).

Non-residential building consents valued at $534 million
The value of consents for non-residential buildings in August 2016 was $534 million – down $136
million (20 percent) from August 2015. The largest contributors to the latest month’s value were:
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education buildings – $106 million
offices, administration, and public transport buildings – $93 million
hospitals, nursing homes, and other health buildings – $77 million.

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 In the year to August 2016, the regions that contributed the highest value of non-residential
building consents were:
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Auckland – $2.2 billion
Canterbury – $1.6 billion
Wellington – $586 million.

Consents for all buildings total $1.7 billion in August
The total value of building work consented in August 2016 was $1.7 billion. This comprised $1.2
billion of residential work, and $534 million of non-residential work.

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 For the year ended August 2016, compared with the year ended August 2015, the value of
buildings consented increased for:
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all buildings – up $2.7 billion (17 percent) to $18 billion
residential buildings – up $2.1 billion (21 percent) to $12 billion
non-residential buildings – up $630 million (11 percent) to $6.2 billion.

Data for building consents is obtained from all territorial authorities in New Zealand.

Find data tables
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: September 2016 will be released on 31 October 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
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Neil Kelly
Christchurch 03 964 8957
Email: info@stats.govt.nz
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Christchurch 03 964 8302 or 964 8918
Email: info@stats.govt.nz
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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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6.

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: September 2016 will be released on 31 October 2016.

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