Residential construction pipeline drying up

There’s been a lot of talk in recent years about the importance of increasing our housing supply. Unfortunately, though, the latest home consents data suggests we're moving in the opposite direction.

A total of 33,600 consents were issued in 2024, which was 9.8% lower than the previous year, according to Stats NZ.

Consents declined everywhere but Otago:

• Nelson = down 25.6%.
• Wellington = down 24.5%.
• Waikato = down 22.4%.
• Tasman = down 20.8%.
• Northland = down 19.4%.
• Taranaki = down 16.3%.
• Hawke's Bay = down 13.9%.
• Auckland = down 10.0%.
• Marlborough = down 8.5%.
• Canterbury = down 6.0%.
• Gisborne = down 3.3%.
• Manawatū-Whanganui = down 2.8%.
• Bay of Plenty = down 2.6%.
• West Coast = down 1.9%.
• Southland = down 1.5%.
• Otago = up 18.8%.

Multi-units losing popularity

The main reason consents went backwards was due to a sharp decline in the number of multi-unit homes (townhouses, apartments, retirement village units and flats) receiving building approval.

While stand-alone house consents rose 0.7% year-on-year, multi-unit consents fell 17.0%.

Fewer consents for more people

To make matters worse, even as consent numbers decreased, the country's population increased (by 0.9%).

As a result, the number of homes consented per 1,000 residents in New Zealand fell from 7.1 in 2023 to 6.3 in 2024.

Helping your clients with construction finance

The next time anyone in your network wants to build a home or development project, I’d be grateful for the opportunity to arrange their finance.