Apartments, townhouses drive new home consents increase
Tuesday, 3 February 2026
Building consents for new homes are climbing, and it’s townhouses and apartments in Auckland that are driving the rise - despite a high amount of unsold stock.
New Stats NZ figures show there were a total of 36,619 consents issued nationwide in the year to December, an increase of 9% on the same time last year.
For the last six months annual consent numbers have been going up, and it has been multi-unit homes, which includes townhouses, apartments, retirement village units and flats, driving the increase.
Within December’s annual total 16,635 consents for stand-alone houses were issued, but at 19,984 more consents were issued for multi-unit homes.
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Standalone house consents were up 5.4% compared with the year ended December 2024, but consents for apartments and townhouses were up 19% and 14% respectively.
It was Auckland that accounted for a large share of the consents issued with a 12% annual increase to 15,617 over the year.
Stats NZ economic indicators spokesperson Michelle Feyen said more than half of the annual increase in consents came from Auckland, and over half of those consents were for multi-unit dwellings.
The increase in new apartment consents comes at a time when there is a high amount of unsold, new stock on the Auckland market.
Barfoot & Thompson’s January data, out on Tuesday, had the agency’s unsold stock of all types across the region at 5475 at month's end, a 1.7% increase on the same time last year.
And a recent study by commercial real estate company CBRE found that 521 of the 2572 apartments completed over the last three years remained unsold. That amounted to a “problematic” 20% across 58 projects, it said.
But CBRE director Tamba Carleton said there was significant variation across apartment projects, with 24 having zero unsold stock, and the average across all projects being nine.
Residual stock was something to watch, but absorption did occur over time as a lack of options in one area prompted people to look in other areas, she said.
“Just because there are new build apartments available for sale, it doesn’t mean developers can’t sell off-the-plan apartments.
“Most developments don’t proceed to the consent stage unless they have the required pre-sales to secure finance.”
There have been several new apartment developments announced recently, although some would be at the resource consent stage rather than the building consent stage, she said.
“The recent increase in new apartment consents is likely to be attributable to a couple of large build-to-rent projects.”
Carleton said the latest figures showed the market was slowly recovering, with the pipeline of projects in the works increasing by one project to 48 projects in the last quarter of 2025.
It was only the second time in four years the pipeline had increased in volume compared to the previous quarter, she said.
“The number of launches has increased, and there is greater diversity - not just geographically, but in type. And over the last four quarters pre-sales rose from eight to 29, and we expect that to continue.”
Some of the recent announcements on Auckland apartment projects have come from Precinct Properties. It launched Pillars, a 20 home development in St Mary’s Bay, late last year, and Dova, an $160 million, 121 home development in Mt Eden, in January.
Ockham Residential announced its new 52 home development, The Kubrick, in Freemans Bay in November, while Simplicity Living has said it was applying for consent to increase the size of its build-to-rent development in Morningside, and also announced a build-to-rent development in Northcote in August.
Meanwhile, Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen said there was nothing in the latest consents data to change his view that while consents had rallied recently they would moderate again later this year.
With house prices so far unmoved and interest rates possibly set to rise quicker than expected, there was little fundamentally to support the lift, he said.
“The pick-up in townhouse consents, both overall and as a share of the total, fits in with our expectations that apartment numbers will remain subdued, and that affordability constraints will continue to support medium-density options.
“However, further delays and changes to Auckland planning regulations could undermine some of the sustained townhouse focus over the medium-term.”