Although the rate of increase in the number of building consents issued over the past few months has slowed slightly, they are still up overall on last year’s numbers and, in particular, the value continues to rise in comparison to 2006.
“We’ve been predicting this flattening out of the industry to occur across 2006 and 2007, but clearly the increased value in the work that is being undertaken continues to rise and reflects a buoyant and healthy sector, with our builders still being kept very busy,” RMBF chief executive Pieter Burghout says.
New housing consents issued for August 2007 numbered 2465, a 1.1% increase on August 2006. The value of these consents showed an 8.5% increase on last year, a total value of $753 million.
New apartment consents were slightly down on this time last year, with 253 compared to 266 in August 2006.
Regionally, the largest increases were in Auckland and Canterbury, with Bay of Plenty having the largest decrease. There was one less consent issued in the North Island and 29 more in the South Island compared to August 2006.
Non-residential consents for August 2007 also had an increase in value on this time last year of 8.5% to $398 million.
There was an increase in the value of consents for six of the 11 non-residential categories, with a spike in hostels and boarding houses. Shops, offices and factories are still the highest contributors to the non-residential building consent total.
Overall, for the year ended August 2007, the total value of consents issued for all buildings was $11,997 million, up $840 million (7.5%) from the previous August 2006 year.
“Each year we achieve the highest ever levels of construction industry spend — and the year to 2007 at nearly $12 billion is no exception,” Mr Burghout says.
“The continued healthy state of the construction sector has played, and continues to play, its part in underpinning the health of the overall New Zealand economy.
“We are forecasting the continuation of this pattern through the remainder of 2007 into 2008, before starting to rise again in 2009.
