Auckland Mayor Phil Goff says a record number of dwellings consented in the city over the past year reflects encouraging progress in addressing housing supply issues.

“Auckland consented 1734 new dwellings in September 2020, taking the annual total to 15,470,” he said.

“That’s the highest number of new dwellings consented in Auckland in a year since records began in the early 1990s. To put it another way, we consented more homes in the past year than we did in the four years of 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 combined.

“In the three months to September 2020, Auckland—which is 34 per cent of the national population—accounted for 46 per cent of new dwellings consented in New Zealand. Over the same period, Auckland also accounted for all the growth in consenting activity in New Zealand.

“And for the first time this September, the value the buildings consented in Auckland exceeded $1 billion, with more than $700 million coming from residential projects.

“This means that Auckland accounted for 44 per cent of the national total value of buildings consented in September and 41 per cent of the total number of dwellings consented in New Zealand.

“These figures demonstrate the resilience of the Auckland housing market, as well as how important the region is to the national economy as we recover from the COVID-19 recession,” Phil Goff said.

“Overall, 56 per cent of the new dwellings consented in Auckland in September were townhouses or apartments, indicating that the Unitary Plan is continuing to drive the creation of a more compact, quality city, with housing intensification replacing sprawl. We are building up—not just out—which offers more housing choices for Aucklanders.

“Auckland still faces a significant housing challenge, with global uncertainty, low interest rates and the removal of loan-to-value ratio restrictions continuing to push up house prices,” Goff said.

“However, the fact that we are consenting dwellings at the highest volume in almost three decades shows that we are making strong progress to increase supply and address Auckland’s housing challenges.”

Councillor Linda Cooper, who chairs the council’s Regulatory Committee, says, “Despite a global pandemic, the number of new dwellings consented in Auckland is up by 5.7 per cent in the last 12 months.

“This progress will help Auckland to eat into its housing shortfall by increasing the overall supply of homes. In fact, the Chief Economist Unit estimates that that over the last three years, Auckland’s housing shortfall has declined by about 10,000 homes.”

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