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.