New housing consents reach record levels in Wellington region, but Kāpiti sees sharp drop
Tuesday, 31 July 2018
A record number of new homes have been consented in the Wellington region in the past year, but Kāpiti and South Wairarapa have seen a dip in numbers.
Data from Statistics New Zealand shows 2781 new homes were consented in the year to June, with Lower Hutt consents up by 85 per cent and those in Upper Hutt jumping 81 per cent.
The regional total includes 1535 stand-alone houses, 565 apartments, 451 townhouses and 230 retirement village units.
That total was up 29 per cent from last year's figure of 2155, and is the highest since records began in 1991.
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'Wellington region consented a record number of new homes in the June 2018 year,' construction indicators manager Melissa McKenzie said.
'This is 7.3 percent higher than the previous peak of 2,632 in the August 2003 year.'
Wellington city also saw a 31 per cent increase compared with last year, and contributed 40 per cent of all new consents, while Masterton was up 63 per cent and Carterton was up 7.1 per cent.
But the Kāpiti Coast saw a 17 per cent drop, and South Wairarapa was down 1 per cent. Porirua was down 0.7 per cent.
Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy said the increase there was similar to that of the past five or six years.
The new Amberley Gardens subdivision in Silverstream had added about 90 homes, while the residential development of Wallaceville Estate in Trentham included about 900 new homes.
Upper Hutt's price bracket was also a factor in the city's recent growth, Guppy said.
'Over the last five to six years, we've had an increase every year of residential development. That's been an ongoing scenario.
'On a bigger scale, some of the bigger projects are now kicking in.'
Consent had also just been granted for almost 100 homes on land near the South Pacific Industrial Park, a former Dunlop tyre factory, he said.
Hutt City Council general manager of city transformation Kim Kelly said Lower Hutt's increase was largely because of an urban growth strategy introduced by the council in 2012.
That set a target of 6000 new homes by 2032, or 300 each year.
Several fees were also waived for builders of all homes other than stand-alone houses, which had encouraged development, Kelly said.
Those fees include building and resource consent fees, and and development and reserves contributions.
'The numbers have gone up quite a lot over those years.'
Consent numbers had been up-and-down, with only 213 last year but 445 the year before.
Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said Wellington's increase had been driven by a strong local economy and increased demand for new housing.
Large-scale apartment developments were also taking place, and last year also saw record numbers, he said.
But Lester wanted the average number of new consents each year, which is about 800, to increase to over 1000 to keep up with demand.
Kāpiti Coast Mayor K Gurunathan said while last year's drop in consents looked bad, consents processed the previous year were the highest in 10 years.
Last year's figure was also the same as the five-year average, so was neither high nor low, he said.
'That said, it demonstrates that Kapiti has not yet 'taken off' like other districts are showing.
'We had a lot of resource consent applications in 2017, and they will translate into new development in coming years.'
Nationwide, Auckland consented the largest number of new homes (12,369), 19 per cent more than last year, but still 4.4 per cent lower than its peak in 2004.
NEW HOUSING CONSENTS
Wellington city 1136 (up 31 per cent)
Lower Hutt 395 (up 85 per cent)
Upper Hutt 323 (up 81 per cent)
Porirua 287 (Up 0.7 per cent)
Kāpiti Coast 241 (down 17 per cent)
Masterton 192 (up 63 per cent)
Carterton 106 (up 7.1 per cent)
South Wairarapa 101 (down 1 per cent)