Fall in new homes consented in January

The actual number of new homes consented in January 2022 was down 6.3 percent from January 2021, Stats NZ said today.

"There were 2,833 new homes consented in January 2022, down 6.3 percent from 3,025 in January 2021," construction statistics manager Michael Heslop said.

"The January 2021 figure was the highest on record for a January month, and despite the comparative fall, the 2022 figure is still the second highest for a January month in the 57-year time series."

"We typically see fewer building consents issued in January than other months, partly due to public holidays and annual leave," Mr Heslop said.

The seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented in January 2022 fell 9.2 percent compared with December 2021. This follows seasonally adjusted rises of 0.4 percent in both December and November 2021.

The seasonally adjusted number of new stand-alone houses consented fell 0.4 percent in January 2022, following a 0.4 percent rise in December 2021.

The number of homes consented each month can vary substantially due to timing of large multi-home projects, such as townhouses and apartment buildings.

Twenty-two percent rise in the annual number of new homes consented

There were 48,707 new homes consented in the year ended January 2022, up 22 percent compared with 39,881 in the year ended January 2021. The latest annual figure is down slightly from 48,899 new homes consented in the year ended December 2021. The earlier year ended January 2021 included the COVID-19 alert level 4 lockdown period in late March and April 2020, which disrupted consent issuance across many territorial authorities.

Three regions consented record numbers of new homes in the year ended January 2022, with 5,135 in Waikato (up 26 percent compared with the year ended January 2021), 7,817 in Canterbury (up 34 percent), and 2,367 in Otago (up 21 percent). These figures are the highest number of new homes consented for any 12-month period since March 1991 when the series began.

In Auckland, 20,321 new homes were consented in the year ended January 2022 (up 19 percent from the January 2021 year), and 3,589 new homes were consented in Wellington region (up 16 percent over the same period).

Enhanced regional new home data is available in tables 3 and 4 of the 'Building consents issued: January 2022' excel file under Download data.

See Regional new dwellings consented for more information.