New Zealand residential building consents fall in September

New Zealand residential building consents fell by 5.7% in seasonally adjusted terms in September 2015. This was below the forecast of a 0.2% increase in consents for the month. That said, the fall this month is not a huge surprise. Consents in July grew by 20%, and the fall back in August was smaller than expected. This suggests that the return from the highs of two months ago have taken a little longer to flow through than expected.

Auckland consent numbers were broadly flat for the month in seasonally adjusted terms, at an annual level of a little over 8,700, supply is still way below what is needed to meet the long-term shortage in housing that Auckland is experiencing.

Meanwhile more evidence has emerged that the residential phase of the Canterbury rebuild is beginning to wind down. The number of residential consents issued in the region fell nearly 16% in the month in seasonally adjusted terms.

But non-residential activity is building steam in Canterbury. The lumpy nature of non-residential work means that the dollar value of consented work in the latest month is down sharply, but the trend is certainly up. 

"We expect that trend to continue as commercial and anchor projects get underway", says Westpac Research.