WELLINGTON: The number of new dwelling consents approved in New Zealand rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4 percent in September, driven by earthquake reconstruction in Canterbury, according to official data issued on Thursday.
The figure followed an upwardly revised 1.5 percent rise in the previous month. The number of building consent approvals was 15 percent higher than the same month a year ago, Statistics New Zealand said. The data can be volatile because of new apartment consents, which if excluded, would have seen a rise 2.6 percent from a revised 1.1 percent gain in August.
The government agency said the number of new consents for the Canterbury region, which includes the country's second biggest city Christchurch, hit a record 599 in the month, and was the main driver for the national increase.
The value of new consents for Canterbury rose slightly to NZ$60 million ($50 million), almost evenly split between new houses and non-residential buildings.
New dwelling consents in Auckland, the country's biggest city, eased nearly 3 percent from August, but were about 7 percent higher on a year earlier.
Building consents issued for Auckland and the Canterbury region accounted for 58 percent of the national total.
The government agency said the trend for non-apartment dwellings was at its highest in five years, although growth appeared to be slowing.
The value of non-residential building consents rose 1 percent on the previous month to be 9 percent higher than a year earlier. For the three months to Sept 30 the value of residential building work consented hit a record NZ$2.1 billion.
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