Our take on the latest Residential building consents (Tue 1 Jul 2025)
Dwelling consents
33,530
Over the year to May 2025
Consent numbers down 0.8% from May 2024
Total house and townhouse consents down 6.5% from May 2024
The key numbers...
- There were 3,151 new dwelling consents issued in May, down 0.8% from a year ago. However, consent numbers recovered most of the ground lost in the previous month’s weak result, with a 10% seasonally adjusted jump in consents from April.
- A good chunk of the strength was underpinned by attached dwellings. There were 211 retirement unit consents, the third-strongest monthly result since August 2023, thanks to strong results in Auckland, Northland, Nelson, and Waikato. Apartment consents were also higher, with over 90% of the 156 units approved coming in Auckland and Canterbury.
- Standalone house consents lifted 3.5% from April (seasonally adjusted), but the total was still down 5.9% from May 2024. The annual number of house consents has now held in the 14,900-16,000 range since December 2023.
- Townhouse consent numbers were 7.3% lower than in May last year. At 14,088, the annual townhouse number has slipped to a new four-year low.
- The biggest contributions to falling consent numbers over the three months to May have come from Canterbury and Bay of Plenty, with both down by about 150 consents from the same three months in 2024. Marlborough has also recorded an outsized drop, caused by much lower levels of retirement and townhouse consents.
- In contrast, consent numbers in Otago continue to perform strongly, up 34% (174 consents) from the same three months last year. Southland and Taranaki are also recording growth of over 20%pa.
Growth slips back into negative territory
Residential consents, three-month annual % changes
...and our reaction
- May’s annual consent total of 33,530 is the second lowest for any month since the end of 2018. We continue to see a slight softening trend in the numbers, particularly for townhouses, with standalone house consents under a little less pressure.
- We are cautious of reading too much into the improvement in monthly consent numbers for apartments or retirement units, given that funding conditions for multi-unit developments remain difficult, and retirement villages are struggling to secure sales given the subdued nature of the broader housing market. Nevertheless, the annual apartment total has pushed up to a 14-month high of 2,137.
- Perhaps the best news for the residential construction industry in recent months is the stabilisation of consent numbers in Auckland, which represents 41% of nationwide consents over the last year. However, lower net migration numbers and the region’s relatively weak economy will limit the scope for any pick-up in Auckland consent numbers in the near term.
- Lower mortgage rates continue to provide limited stimulus to the housing market, and the lack of upward pressure on house prices remains a constraint on any recovery in residential construction.
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