New home consents hit an 11-year high in November, underpinned by Auckland work but in the South Island overall consent numbers eased.
However, on a seasonally adjusted basis, consent numbers declined 9%.
November data from 2015 for the South Island valued its 804 consents at $274million, but both numbers and value declined last November, to 750 homes valued at $272million.
Otago booked overall increases for the month of November, rising from 146 consents valued at $55million a year ago to $70million for the 161 consents last November.
Queenstown consents eased from 88 a year ago to 71 last November, Dunedin rose from 25 to 42 and Central Otago more than doubled, from 16 to 38.
Statistics New Zealand business indicators manager Melissa McKenzie said almost 40% of the new homes consented were in Auckland.
For last November, 2973 new homes were consented, up 5% on a year ago, and the largest number for any month since March 2005, when 3027 new homes were consented.
ASB senior economist Jane Turner said when the data was adjusted to remove the impact of seasonal variation, residential building consents were down 9% in November.
"However, on closer inspection it appears this decline is largely due to earthquake disruption in Wellington ... where consents fell over 50% in the month," she said.
Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said the ‘‘sharp’’ 9% fall might have reflected the impact of the earthquake.
He noted that while 10,100 new homes were consented for Auckland during the year to November, it remained below the level required to meet population growth.
In the year to November, 30,303 new homes were consented around New Zealand, up 13% on the previous year. This included a 13% increase to 10,137 in Auckland. In Christchurch consents declined 9.1% to 6054 as the rebuild slowly wound down.
