Mixed trends in recent building activity

During March and April 2009 the Department of Building and Housing asked all registered territorial authorities that are building consent authorities to provide information about building consents granted during the first eight months of the 2008/09 financial year.

The useful information received from the 72 authorities confirms the scale and value of ongoing building activity throughout New Zealand, as well as giving an indication of the economic recession's impact to date on the building sector nationally and in different districts.

Building consent numbers, value of work and fee income down nationally, but up in some areas

Territorial authorities granted around 56,000 building consents during the eight months from 1 July 2008 to 28 February 2009. The total combined value of the consented building work during the period was around $7.4 billion.

Month-by-month figures indicate a national trend downwards in the total number of consents. However, allowing for the usual seasonal downturn in January, some districts appear to have maintained steady or increasing numbers of consents. A comparison of the eight-month totals in the accompanying table with 60 percent of the total number of consents granted in the 2007/08 year¹ indicates the overall number of building consents has reduced by roughly 10 percent so far this year.The same comparison for individual authorities indicates that the number of consents may have decreased by close to 40 percent in some districts, while in other districts the number of consents has actually increased by up to 30 percent.

A similar comparison of the value of consented building work² and the total consent processing and inspection fee income³ received by the authorities indicates that, without any CPI adjustment, there has been an overall national decrease in the reported value of building work and of consent processing and inspection fee income of around 4 to 5 percent.

Building consent processing times improve

Seventy of the 72 authorities⁴ provided information on building consent processing times during the four months from November 2008 to February 2009. Of the 22,000 building consents issued during that period by those 70 authorities, 20,000 (91 percent) were granted within 20 working days of receipt of the consent application.

While this is still short of the 100 percent required by the Building Act (a target which many authorities did consistently meet each month), this represents a steady improvement in performance, partly due to the reducing number of consents in many districts.

Trends in the type of building work

The Department also requested information about the type of building work being approved. In particular, authorities were asked for the number of consents issued each month for the following types of buildings.

• New residential (houses and apartments).
• Additions and alterations to existing residential.
• New buildings other than residential.
• Alterations to existing buildings other than residential.

Unfortunately the wide variations between authorities' internal categorisations of consented building work meant that the data could not be reliably compared. This has highlighted a need for guidance on the categorisation of building work to enable meaningful data comparison.

Future requests for building consent information

The Department intends to make a similar data request in July 2009 covering the remaining four months of this financial year (March - June 2009). Thereafter, it is likely that similar requests will be made on a four-monthly basis (in November, March and July of each year). A spreadsheet data template will be provided to ensure a consistent approach in collecting the information.

The information gathered will also feed into the Department's regular quarterly publication, Building and Housing Trends Report. To subscribe to this or other publications by the Department, visit www.dbh.govt.nz/subscribe   

Territorial Authority	Number of building consents issued from 1 Jul 08 to 28 Feb 09	Jul-08	Aug-08	Sep-08	Oct-08	Nov-08	Dec-08	Jan-09	Feb-09
Ashburton District	696	123	84	107	116	68	73	57	68
Auckland City	3834	567	502	521	549	476	234	481	504
Buller District	278	49	38	29	30	41	34	18	39
Carterton District	226	30	30	22	26	39	22	31	26
Central Hawke's Bay District	274	46	32	54	44	29	32	8	29
Central Otago District	544	77	89	85	64	67	60	40	55
Christchurch City	3889	545	712	579	519	486	417	320	530
Clutha District	417	89	62	45	68	55	35	26	37
Dunedin City	1866	302	300	248	183	173	295	189	176
Far North District	854	140	105	146	112	108	102	56	85
Franklin District	875	154	115	103	126	96	116	70	95
Gisborne District	785	149	97	117	125	71	99	65	62
Gore District	348	73	37	56	62	35	39	9	37
Grey District	Not provided	41	36	Not provided	29	34	78	13	36
Hamilton City	1058	180	139	161	122	121	154	80	101
Hastings District	984	161	122	171	134	102	102	99	93
Hauraki District	347	77	63	42	28	39	37	28	33
Horowhenua District	435	105	54	77	37	56	31	29	46
Hurunui District	291	50	57	43	19	26	47	16	33
Hutt City	708	109	93	98	58	95	137	58	60
Invercargill City	1426	188	208	234	230	146	153	118	149
Kaikoura District	118	16	12	25	15	8	16	9	17
Kaipara District	448	73	63	63	74	51	52	32	40
Kapiti Coast District	669	132	103	86	78	71	80	63	56
Kawerau District	59	12	12	8	5	8	8	3	3
Mackenzie District	159	27	18	7	23	31	26	17	21
Manawatu District	490	107	52	88	63	53	54	32	43
Manukau City	1819	276	213	289	260	224	181	151	225
Marlborough District	1185	160	184	201	135	119	139	119	128
Masterton District	522	61	64	86	77	64	66	42	62
Matamata-Piako District	609	102	79	106	78	87	36	57	64
Napier City	727	99	104	118	84	83	82	86	71
Nelson City	831	115	102	112	125	83	115	72	107
New Plymouth District	1191	172	134	151	119	178	160	141	136
North Shore City	1814	251	207	162	235	263	287	183	226
Opotiki District	158	22	26	22	18	23	14	13	20
Otorohanga District	251	48	51	28	38	31	20	30	5
Palmerston North City	790	141	121	96	112	101	80	46	93
Papakura District	411	65	56	53	51	56	52	41	37
Porirua City	474	66	71	72	70	61	45	44	45
Queenstown-Lakes District	847	125	133	109	125	108	71	88	89
Rangitikei District	235	45	24	35	30	27	31	26	17
Rodney District	1343	181	239	165	188	187	146	120	117
Rotorua District	950	163	138	129	120	92	101	77	130
Ruapehu District	229	35	32	23	37	28	28	24	22
Selwyn District	1178	183	176	188	148	154	150	71	108
South Taranaki District	535	70	66	72	64	45	51	35	32
South Waikato District	441	80	60	55	63	77	52	14	40
South Wairarapa District	328	52	47	45	33	42	43	32	34
Southland District	1220	208	158	187	177	164	124	99	103
Stratford District	215	30	33	25	25	27	23	19	33
Tararua District	389	66	60	52	44	50	39	33	44
Tasman District	889	134	94	136	135	117	102	82	89
Taupo District	759	119	115	104	88	89	73	76	95
Tauranga City	1249	217	171	181	178	149	108	113	132
Thames-Coromandel District	769	116	106	99	126	109	97	48	68
Timaru District	1055	181	137	136	141	147	129	73	111
Upper Hutt City	470	77	72	63	70	56	36	32	64
Waikato District	717	131	100	94	113	87	66	62	64
Waimakariri District	798	137	117	120	85	104	86	54	95
Waimate District	219	43	25	28	28	27	23	21	24
Waipa District	848	137	145	117	101	111	85	81	71
Wairoa District	130	23	18	15	16	22	17	9	10
Waitakere City	1163	137	137	121	126	171	162	159	150
Waitaki District	454	72	79	60	55	47	48	58	35
Waitomo District	199	25	34	19	20	19	18	32	32
Wanganui District	752	160	95	101	80	107	101	60	48
Wellington City	1967	287	354	273	220	269	211	162	191
Western Bay of Plenty District	802	136	125	96	110	105	84	75	71
Westland District	247	48	27	29	44	44	28	23	23
Whakatane District	524	78	51	85	80	52	54	55	69
Whangarei District	1009	184	106	86	141	186	118	78	110
TOTALS	55,790	8880	7921	7759	7352	6977	6315	4983	6014

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1 Sixty percent of the 2007/08 total equates to a little under 7.5 months. This is to account for typically low consent numbers in January.
2Based on responses from 71 of the 72 registered authorities (Grey District information on building work value for the current year was not available).
3Based on responses from 67 of the 72 registered authorities (Christchurch City, Franklin District, Grey District, Hutt City and Southland District information on fee income was not available for one or other of the years being compared).
4Christchurch City and Southland District information was not available.