Number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents increases

The number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents in the year ended February 2021 was 7.8, Stats NZ said today.

The highest number of new homes consented was 13.4 in the year ended December 1973.

The number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents has been increasing since the early 2010s.

"Since the home-building low point in the early 2010s after the global financial crisis (GFC), the number of new homes consented for every 1,000 people living in New Zealand has increased year on year," construction statistics manager Michael Heslop said.

"Since the early 1980s, up to the time of the GFC, the average had been around six new homes consented a year per 1,000 residents."

Although the number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents is still significantly less than figures seen in the 1970s, the average home has changed since then.

At its lowest point in 1975, the average home was around 107 square metres. Homes have on average become bigger since then, leading to an increase in the total floor area added per 1,000 residents while the number of new homes remained relatively flat.

"Over the last three decades, census results have shown an increase in the proportion of occupied private homes with four or more bedrooms," Mr Heslop said.

See Housing in Aotearoa: 2020 for more information.

Some of the increases in the size of homes, particularly stand-alone houses, were due to higher proportions of attached garages.

The average size of new homes consented peaked in 2010 at 200 square metres and has been decreasing since then, dropping down to 156 square metres in 2020. See Consents for medium-sized houses increase rapidly in the last decade for more information.