Building consents in New Zealand grew strongly on a year-on-year basis in March. According to Statistics New Zealand, building consents were up 37 percent, reaching a record NZD 2 billion in March 2017. The surge in consents was boosted by new homes and several major non-residential projects.
Meanwhile, home consents dropped slightly after rising sharply in February. The seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented dropped 1.8 percent on a sequential basis. In actual terms a total of 2,779 new homes were consented, up 20 percent compared with March 2016, stated Statistics New Zealand. The value of non-residential consents reached NZD 837 million, up NZD 377 million from March 2016.
“A consent for the Park Hyatt Hotel in Auckland helped boost the value of non-residential consents to its highest-ever level. This month’s spike in commercial consents shows there’s still quite a bit of building work in the pipeline”, said Statistics New Zealand business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly.