New Zealand Sees 1.3% Rise in Annual Home Consents Driven by Multi-Unit Developments

New Zealand Sees 1.3% Rise in Annual Home Consents Driven by Multi-Unit Developments

New Zealand: New Zealand recorded 34,078 new homes consented in the year ended August 2025, marking a 1.3 per cent increase compared with the previous year. The rise was supported by growth in both stand-alone homes, which increased by 1 per cent to 15,775 units, and multi-unit dwellings, up 1.6 per cent to 18,323 units. The increase was largely driven by apartment and townhouse developments in Auckland and Otago. Apartment consents rose by 45.5 per cent, while townhouse, flat and unit consents saw a slight decline of 0.7 per cent. In August 2025 alone, 3,080 new dwellings were approved, a 6.9 per cent increase compared to the same month last year. 

Regionally, Auckland led with 14,495 new dwelling consents, followed by Canterbury (6,599), Waikato (2,813) and Otago (2,473). Otago and Nelson saw the highest growth rates, rising 16.1 per cent and 23.4 per cent respectively. The national consent rate remained steady at 6.4 dwellings per 1,000 residents, with Otago (9.8), Canterbury (9.6) and Auckland (8.1) above the national average. Non-residential building consents totalled NZD 8.7 billion (USD 5.1 billion / EUR 4.7 billion), down 5.4 per cent from the previous year, with the largest values recorded in office, storage, and factory buildings. 

Source: Under Construction