There appears to be a "steady pipeline'' of 2016 construction work ahead for the industry, with Otago's December spend up by $18million on a year ago.
Building consents for new dwellings continued to increase in 2015, although not as strongly as in the previous three years, Statistics New Zealand's (SNZ) business indicators manager Clara Eatherley said.
More than 27,000 new dwellings were consented in 2015, up about 2400 from 2014, following an average increase of 3700 over each of the three previous years.
"The largest increases in 2015 were for townhouses and apartments. Consents for houses also increased, while retirement village units decreased very slightly,'' Ms Eatherley said in a statement.
The regions with the largest increases were Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, while the largest decrease was Canterbury, down from a record high in 2014.
Auckland accounted for about one-third of the national total in 2015, with Canterbury accounting for about one-quarter.
Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith said the SNZ data showing 27,132 consents for the year and 2538 for December were the highest figures in more than a decade and showed residential construction was booming.
"The doubling in the annual rate of new home construction from 13,500 in 2012 to 27,000 in 2015 is unprecedented.
"This is the longest sustained growth in residential construction in New Zealand history and is now topping $1billion per month,'' Dr Smith said in a statement yesterday.
ASB senior economist Jane Turner said while residential dwelling consents in December rose 2.3%, with a boost in demand from Auckland and Waikato, Auckland house construction "continues to underwhelm'', given the pace was falling short of the city's population growth.
Dr Smith said he was "encouraged'' by the increasing proportion of townhouses and apartments in Auckland's growth, which would be an important part of the solution to the city's housing challenges.
Ms Turner said, "December building consents were encouraging, confirming the steady pipeline of construction activity the Reserve Bank is expecting to support growth.''
Westpac industry economist David Norman said total growth in consents for the quarter to December was up 10.2%, with Auckland consents having risen 21% in calendar 2015 to 9251.
"A strong pipeline of work that will translate into construction activity over the next several months is in place.
"Although we would caution that in Auckland, the level of consents is still well below what is needed to eat into the backlog of supply,'' Mr Norman said.
