Consent figures show that construction of new homes in Auckland is booming

Licenses have been issued for more than 13,000 new homes in Auckland by October – the first figure since the 1970s, announced Stats NZ.

Building permits in Auckland briefly reached a similar level in the early 1970s, while Auckland's population was less than half of what it is today, Dave said. Adair, Interim Construction Statistics Officer.

"The number of new authorized houses also reached nearly 13,000 in June 2004".

In the past year, in Auckland, only 48% of new licensed homes were self-contained (74% in the rest of New Zealand). The remaining 52% were apartments, row houses, retired village units and apartments.

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The economist in infometrics, Gareth Kiernan, said the good news was that the number of consents increased after a difficult period in 2017.

"However, capacity constraints remain a problem in Auckland's construction sector, even though they have become less critical in the residential subsector over the past year and have become more problematic in the non-residential subsector. .

"Although we anticipate further growth in the number of consents to Auckland in 2019, we do not believe that a number of consents greater than 13,000 can be maintained, and we expect the business to come back. about 12,000 per year in 2020. This perspective is obviously problematic given the under-supply of housing in Auckland. "

Cameron Bagrie, of Bagrie Economics, agreed that there was no quick fix. "It took 20 years to get into trouble in Auckland and it will take another 20 to get out on the other side.

He added that KiwiBuild could put "a lot of time" to get up and running in ways that reduce the city's supply problem.

"It's not as bad as it was, but we still have trouble keeping up. We still have phenomenal migration figures and phenomenal population growth, and most of that goes to Auckland. This is going in the right direction, on the demand side is starting to come off, but there is still a bad match. "

During the fiscal year ended October 2018, 32,925 new homes were licensed in New Zealand, an increase of 6.7% over October 2017. Auckland was the main driver of this increase, followed by from Wellington. The situation was mixed in other parts of the country, with the largest annual declines recorded in Canterbury and Bay of Plenty.

Nationally, the number of licensed new homes increased 1.5% (seasonally adjusted) in October 2018, from a 1.3% decline in September.

Jane Turner, economist at ASB, said the housing shortage in Auckland has also been extended to Wellington.

"Growth in housing construction has also struggled to keep pace with population growth in other areas, including Gisborne and Hawkes Bay." Nevertheless, population growth nationwide is slowing down and, therefore, we think the level of housing construction nationwide Housing activity is expected to remain relatively high over the next few years to allow to the supply of housing to meet the demand for housing. "