The total number of building permits issued in New Zealand slid a seasonally adjusted 4.9 percent on month in August, Statistics New Zealand said on Wednesday – coming in at 2,291, up 11 percent on year.
That follows the downwardly revised 20.3 percent surge in July.
The actual value of building work consented in August was a record NZ$1.5 billion.
On a yearly basis, the value of residential work was up NZ$102 million (13 percent) to NZ$862 million, while non-residential work was up NZ$229 million (52 percent) to NZ$671 million.
“Christchurch really stands out this month, because we’ve got these non-residential consents accounting for a big chunk of the national total,” business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said.
Several large consents contributed to the increase. The largest was a permit for the Regional Science and Innovation Centre at the University of Canterbury.
So far this year, Christchurch has consented NZ$1.2 billion of non-residential building work – slightly more than the NZ$1.1 billion of residential work consented over the same period.
“What we’re seeing in Christchurch is a few big consents for offices, hospitals, and the university,” Kelly said.
Individually, consents were issued for 1,617 houses, 65 apartments, 266 retirement village units and 343 townhouses, flats, and units.
The regions that consented the most new dwellings in August were Auckland (741), Canterbury (596) and Waikato (233).
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com