Building consents plunge on quake, rebuild

November’s major earthquake has knocked the building industry, with a sharp drop in building consents in the capital.

Statistics New Zealand said yesterday that the number of new homes consented in November was the highest of any month in more than 11 years, at 2973.

However, when seasonal fluctuations were taken into account, the consents were down 9.2 per cent on October.

Statistics NZ said the trend for consents was heading lower, both for houses and all dwellings.

As well as lower consents in Christchurch, where construction activity has been heading lower for some time as the Canterbury earthquake rebuild winds down, Statistics NZ said consents in Wellington for the month dropped 60 per cent on November 2015, to 132.

ASB senior economist Jane Turner said she expected Wellington’s strong growth in construction to return in the coming months.

‘‘[I]t appears this decline is largely due to earthquake disruption in Wellington – where seasonally-adjusted [ASB estimates] residential consents fell over 50 per cent in the month,’’ Turner said.

‘‘Once processing capacity and application demand have returned to normal, we expect Wellington’s strong upward trend to continue.’’

Turner said consents had already been trending lower before November, which was of ‘‘some concern’’. However, activity was likely to stay strong this year.

‘‘Strong population growth over the past few years has lifted housing demand right across the country, and we expected momentum to continue at least for another year.’’

Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said that while the number of consents being issued in Auckland had climbed 6 per cent to more than 10,000 in 12 months, more was needed.

‘‘This is still below the level Auckland needs in light of the region’s strong population growth and existing housing shortage,’’ Ranchhod said. ‘‘More concerning, the trend in dwelling consent issuance in Auckland appears to have flattened off.’’