Strong growth in the number of new dwelling consents continued unabated in September, with 3347 new consents issued in the month, up 30.8% compared to September last year, according to Statistics NZ.

In the 12 months to September 36,446 new dwelling consents were issued, up 12% on the previous 12 months.

That was the highest number of new homes consented in any 12 month period since the 12 months to October 1974 and still well below the all time record of 40,025 new dwellings that were consented in the 12 months to February 1974.

Growth has been particularly strong for multi-unit developments, with consents for new apartments up 17.8% in the 12 months to September compared to the previous year, while townhouses and home units were up 26.7%, retirement village units were up 17.1% and stand alone houses were up 6.1%.

In Auckland, where population pressures are greatest, the number of new homes consented dropped to 1143 in September from 1407 in August but remained up by 33.8% compared to September last year.

In the 12 months to September 14,634 new dwellings were consented in Auckland, up 13% on the previous 12 months.

Most regions showed double digit annual growth in new dwelling consents with particularly strong growth in Waikato +18.2%, Tasman +25.8%, Nelson +19.8%, and Southland +18.9% (see the interactive chart below for the trends in all regions).

The figures underpin the importanace of the construction sector to the economy, with the value of new dwelling consents hitting $13.54 billion in the year to September, with another $1.98 billion of work consented for dwelling structural alterations and additions, taking the total value of residential building work consented to $15.52 billion for the 12 months to September, up 10.3% on the previous year.

On top of that another $7.58 billion in non-residential building work was consented in the 12 months to September, up 12.7% on the previous year.

The value of all construction work being consented is now running at about $2 billion a month.

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