Building Consents Issued 2 July

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

Use the open-source tool 7-Zip to decompress the CSV files below.

Key facts

• In May 2024, the seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings consented fell 1.7 percent, after falling 2.1 percent in April 2024.
• In the year ended May 2024, the actual number of new dwellings consented was 34,851, down 23 percent from the year ended May 2023.
• The annual value of non-residential building work consented was $9.2 billion, down 7.0 percent from the year ended May 2023.
• In the year ended May 2024, the number of new dwellings consented per 1,000 residents was 6.6, compared with 8.7 in the year ended May 2023.

New dwellings consented

In May 2024, there were 3,175 new dwellings consented, comprising:

• 1,555 stand-alone houses
• 1,424 townhouses, flats, and units
• 109 apartments
• 87 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 3.5 percent, after rising 4.9 percent in April 2024.

Regional new dwellings consented

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

• 14,488 in Auckland (down 26 percent)
• 3,166 in Waikato (down 25 percent)
• 2,193 in Wellington (down 36 percent)
• 5,009 in rest of North Island (down 18 percent)
• 6,752 in Canterbury (down 15 percent)
• 3,242 in rest of South Island (down 17 percent).

New dwellings consented per 1,000 residents

The number of new dwellings consented per 1,000 residents across New Zealand was 6.6 for the year ended May 2024, compared with 8.7 in the year ended May 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 May 2024, non-residential building consents totalled $9.2 billion, down 7.0 percent from the year ended May 2023. This series can be influenced by price changes - non-residential construction prices (as measured by the capital goods price index) were up 4.6 percent in the year ended March 2024.

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

• offices, administration, and public transport buildings at $1.5 billion (down 2.2 percent)
• storage buildings at $1.5 billion (down 0.8 percent)
• hospitals, nursing homes, and health buildings at $1.4 billion (down 9.4 percent).

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

Haipeng Li
03 964 8498
[email protected]

ISSN 1178-0231

Next release

Building consents issued: June 2024 will be released on 31 July 2024.