Building Consents Issued 1 March

Building consent statistics are about the number, floor area, and value of new homes, non-residential buildings, and alterations approved for construction.

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Key facts

• In January 2024, the seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings consented fell 8.8 percent, after rising 3.6 percent in December 2023.
• In the year ended January 2024, the actual number of new dwellings consented was 36,453, down 26 percent from the year ended January 2023.
• The annual value of non-residential building work consented was $9.9 billion, up 4.0 percent from the year ended January 2023.
• In the year ended January 2024, the number of new dwellings consented per 1,000 residents was 7.0, compared with 9.6 in the year ended January 2023.

New dwellings consented

In January 2024, there were 1,991 new dwellings consented, comprising:

• 899 stand-alone houses
• 899 townhouses, flats, and units
• 123 apartments
• 70 retirement village units.

The number of dwellings consented each month can vary significantly due to the timing of large multi-dwelling projects, such as townhouses and apartment buildings.

The seasonally adjusted number of new stand-alone houses consented fell 8.1 percent, after falling 5.2 percent in December 2023.

Regional new dwellings consented

By region, the numbers of new dwellings consented in the year ended January 2024 (compared with the year ended January 2023) were:

• 15,309 in Auckland (down 28 percent)
• 3,431 in Waikato (down 27 percent)
• 2,326 in Wellington (down 41 percent)
• 5,262 in rest of North Island (down 19 percent)
• 6,774 in Canterbury (down 24 percent)
• 3,350 in rest of South Island (down 23 percent).

New dwellings consented per 1,000 residents

The number of new dwellings consented per 1,000 residents across New Zealand was 7.0 for the year ended January 2024, compared with 9.6 in the year ended January 2023. The record number of new dwellings consented per 1,000 residents was 13.4 in the year ended December 1973.

National population estimates are updated quarterly, and subnational population estimates are updated annually in October, and are provisional. For more information about estimated resident population see Population.

Non-residential building consents

In the year ended January 2024, non-residential building consents totalled $9.9 billion, up 4.0 percent from the year ended January 2023. This series can be influenced by price changes - non-residential construction prices (as measured by the capital goods price index) were up 5.7 percent in the year ended December 2023.

In the year ended January 2024, the non-residential building types with the highest values were:

• storage buildings at $1.6 billion (up 6.2 percent)
• offices, administration, and public transport buildings at $1.5 billion (down 13 percent)
• hospitals, nursing homes, and health buildings at $1.4 billion (up 4.1 percent).

Updates to geographies

Building consents issued: January 2024 includes a routine revision to geographies. All subnational series have been updated to use 2024 geographic areas.

More data

Use Infoshare for time-series data about building consents:

Subject category: Industry sectors
Group: Building consents - BLD

Definitions and metadata

Building consents issued methodology from March 2015 onwards - DataInfo+ provides the general methodology used to produce building consent statistics from March 2015 onwards.

Building consents issued concepts from March 2015 onwards - DataInfo+ provides definitions of terms used in this release.

Building consents issued - DataInfo+ explains limitations of the data and changes over time.

Building consents issued frequently asked questions - DataInfo+ answers some common queries.

Technical enquiries

Angus Crowe
04 931 4111
[email protected]

ISSN 1178-0231

Next release

Building consents issued: February 2024 will be released on 4 April 2024.