Building townhouses and apartments is becoming increasingly popular, with Auckland leading the charge.  

More than 36-thousand building consents for new homes were issued nationwide in the year to December, up 9%, with multi-unit homes making up the majority of those.  

Master Builders Chief Executive Ankit Sharma told Mike Hosking this is likely to continue in the long term due to infrastructure constraints and population growth in big cities like Auckland. 

He says it's better to build before demand comes or else there will be shortages.  

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