Wellington, Feb 4 (Agency) The number of new homes consented in 2021 rose 24 percent year on year, New Zealand’s statistics department Stats NZ said on Friday. A record 48,899 new homes were consented in 2021, up 24 percent from 2020, construction statistics manager Michael Heslop said in a statement. Prior to 2021, the highest number of new homes consented was 40,025 in the year ended February 1974. That record stood for 47 years until the year ended March 2021 when 41,028 new homes were consented, statistics show. “This concludes a record-breaking year for new home consents,” with multi-unit homes surging 36 percent to 23,335 in 2021, and stand-alone houses rising 15 percent to 25,564, compared with 2020, Heslop said.
Multi-unit homes include townhouses, flats, and units, apartments, and retirement village units. The number of new homes consented per 1,000 residents across New Zealand was 9.6 in 2021, up from 7.8 in 2020, Heslop said. The average floor area of all new homes consented in 2021 was 154 square meters, down from 156 square meters in 2020, he said, adding that the average floor area was 200 square meters at its peak in 2010, when over 80 percent of all new homes consented were stand-alone houses. In 2021, 52 percent of all new homes consented were stand-alone houses, with an average of 195 square meters, and 48 percent were multi-unit homes, which averaged 109 square meters, statistics show. “The decrease in the average size of new homes consented in recent years is partly due to the increasing proportion of multi-unit homes, which tend to be smaller than most stand-alone houses,” Heslop said. Floor area for new homes includes any attached garage, which is around 36 square meters for a typical double garage.
Stand-alone houses are more likely than other home types to include a garage. Homes consented in the 1970s remain the smallest in the series. The average floor area of new homes was 107 square meters at its lowest point in 1975, according to Stats NZ. Prices for construction of new dwellings increased 16 percent in the December 2021 quarter compared with the December 2020 quarter as measured by the consumer price index, it said. New Zealand’s property prices hit new record highs in the last several months in a row despite the COVID-19 pandemic, while record low interest rates boosted demand for housing and credit. As the housing demand kept high, the supply touched low. In some regions, inventory levels were at their lowest point ever.