Consents for new homes fell 26 per cent in April 2023 compared to the same period last year, StatsNZ said today.

There were 2,757 new homes consented in the month of April, down 2.6 per cent on March when seasonally adjusted. This follows a seasonally adjusted rise of 6.6 per cent in March compared to February.

“April 2023 marks the third consecutive month that the number of homes consented has been down by more than 25 per cent when compared with the same month of the previous year,” said Michael Heslop, StatsNZ’s construction and property statistics manager.

“The trend for the number of new homes consented peaked in early 2022 and has been decreasing since then.”

Of the 2,757 new dwellings consented in April, there were 1,329 townhouses, flats, and units (down 18 per cent when compared with April 2022), 1,123 stand-alone houses (down 32 per cent), 157 apartments (down 41 per cent) and 148 retirement village units (down 16 per cent).

In the year ended April 2023, the actual number of new dwellings consented was 45,962, down 9.3 per cent from the year ended April 2022.

However, housing consents remain historically high compared to the 13,236 new homes consented in the year to July 2011.

The annual value of non-residential building work consented was up 12 per cent to $9.7 billion.

“The annual number of stand-alone houses consented has been decreasing for most of 2022, but this was largely offset by the growth in multi-unit homes,” Heslop said.