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The number of new dwellings consented was 3,440 (Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Aug 2026).

Updated

The number of new dwellings (homes) consented each month, from building consent data. Houses and apartments/townhouses/units are shown separately, plus a seasonally adjusted total.

New dwellings consented in each calendar year per 1,000 residents, which allows fair comparison across decades as the population grows.

A consent is permission to build, not a completed home. Some consented homes are built late or never; there is no official national series of completions. Monthly numbers are volatile; use annual totals or the seasonally adjusted series for trends.

A regional rent can change when the mix of newly rented properties changes. The national median gives the middle rent across new rentals, with half above it and half below it.

Read the period beside each number before comparing it with another figure. A monthly observation, a quarterly result and a financial year cover different spans of time. The latest release can also revise earlier observations. The chart and downloads keep the published periods so you can check which figures are being compared. A change in building describes what happened during that period; it does not by itself explain why it happened or identify the effect of a government policy. Definitions and coverage matter as much as the size of a change.

Sources: Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. Last retrieved 10 October 2026.

Building, New homes consented: number, Apr 1965 to Aug 2026

New dwellings consentedNew dwellings consented (seasonally adjusted)New houses consentedNew apartments, townhouses, units and other dwellings consented
Building. New dwellings consented, Apr 1965 to Aug 2026, latest 3,440. New dwellings consented (seasonally adjusted), Jan 1995 to Aug 2026, latest 3,525. New houses consented, Apr 1990 to Aug 2026, latest 1,704. New apartments, townhouses, units and other dwellings consented, Apr 1990 to Aug 2026, latest 1,736.02,0004,0006,0001965197519851996200620162026
Show the figures
PeriodNew dwellings consented (number)New dwellings consented (seasonally adjusted) (number)New houses consented (number)New apartments, townhouses, units and other dwellings consented (number)
Aug 20263,4403,5251,7041,736
Jul 20263,5793,3371,7691,810
Jun 20263,4713,4931,6581,813
May 20263,8013,6241,8351,966
Apr 20263,6923,8191,6042,088
Mar 20263,6773,3911,7291,948
Feb 20263,1683,4201,5321,636
Jan 20262,5283,3451,1901,338
Dec 20253,1283,2621,2991,829
Nov 20253,5173,4091,6071,910
Oct 20253,5203,3251,5681,952
Sep 20253,7473,3551,6012,146
Aug 20253,0803,1091,4921,588
Jul 20253,2523,0071,5121,740
Jun 20252,6272,8151,3021,325
May 20253,1512,9011,4641,687
Apr 20252,4182,5481,1481,270
Mar 20253,3983,1661,3742,024
Feb 20252,5782,7841,1911,387
Jan 20252,2032,8061,0771,126
Full data: new dwellings consented
Aug 2026New dwellings consented 3,440New dwellings consented (seasonally adjusted) 3,525New houses consented 1,704New apartments, townhouses, units and other dwellings consented 1,736

The number of new dwellings (homes) consented each month, from building consent data. Houses and apartments/townhouses/units are shown separately, plus a seasonally adjusted total.

Building. New dwellings consented: 3,440 in Aug 2026. New dwellings consented (seasonally adjusted): 3,525 in Aug 2026. New houses consented: 1,704 in Aug 2026. New apartments, townhouses, units and other dwellings consented: 1,736 in Aug 2026.

Each measure retains its own definition and period. Lines break at changes in basis and missing periods. Choose a measure to see its note and readout.

Download CSVDownload JSONAnalyse with AI

Full downloads for every dataset on this page:

New homes consentedCSVJSON
New homes consented per 1,000 residentsCSVJSON

Building: definitions

New homes consented

The number of new dwellings (homes) consented each month, from building consent data. Houses and apartments/townhouses/units are shown separately, plus a seasonally adjusted total.

New homes consented per 1,000 residents

New dwellings consented in each calendar year per 1,000 residents, which allows fair comparison across decades as the population grows.

Building: comparison limits

These affect how far the figures can be compared.

New homes consented

  • A consent is permission to build, not a completed home. Some consented homes are built late or never; there is no official national series of completions.
  • Monthly numbers are volatile; use annual totals or the seasonally adjusted series for trends.

New homes consented per 1,000 residents

  • Consents, not completions.

Building by NZ government

The last published observation before each term began and ended. The current term uses the latest observation.Change since a government took office is not the same as its effect.

Prime ministersIn officeStartEndChange
Holyoake, MarshallDec 1960 to Dec 1972Not available2,938 (Nov 1972)Not available
Kirk, Watt, RowlingDec 1972 to Dec 19752,938 (Nov 1972)2,484 (Nov 1975)A fall of 454
MuldoonDec 1975 to Jul 19842,484 (Nov 1975)1,568 (Jun 1984)A fall of 916
Lange, Palmer, MooreJul 1984 to Nov 19901,568 (Jun 1984)2,095 (Oct 1990)A rise of 527
Bolger, ShipleyNov 1990 to Dec 19992,095 (Oct 1990)2,182 (Nov 1999)A rise of 87
ClarkDec 1999 to Nov 20082,182 (Nov 1999)1,173 (Oct 2008)A fall of 1,009
Key, EnglishNov 2008 to Oct 20171,173 (Oct 2008)2,770 (Sep 2017)A rise of 1,597
Ardern, HipkinsOct 2017 to Nov 20232,770 (Sep 2017)3,060 (Oct 2023)A rise of 290
LuxonNov 2023 to now3,060 (Oct 2023)3,440 (Aug 2026, latest)A rise of 380 so far
Compare governments on any measure

Building: data by period

The latest ten published periods for up to six series in each dataset. The downloads contain every observation.

New homes consented

The number of new dwellings (homes) consented each month, from building consent data. Houses and apartments/townhouses/units are shown separately, plus a seasonally adjusted total.

PeriodNew dwellings consentedNew dwellings consented (seasonally adjusted)New houses consentedNew apartments, townhouses, units and other dwellings consented
Aug 20263,4403,5251,7041,736
Jul 20263,5793,3371,7691,810
Jun 20263,4713,4931,6581,813
May 20263,8013,6241,8351,966
Apr 20263,6923,8191,6042,088
Mar 20263,6773,3911,7291,948
Feb 20263,1683,4201,5321,636
Jan 20262,5283,3451,1901,338
Dec 20253,1283,2621,2991,829
Nov 20253,5173,4091,6071,910

New homes consented per 1,000 residents

New dwellings consented in each calendar year per 1,000 residents, which allows fair comparison across decades as the population grows.

PeriodNew dwellings consented per 1,000 residents (calendar years)
20256.9
20246.4
20237.2
20229.7
20219.6
20207.8
20197.6
20186.7
20176.5
20166.4

Building: questions for your AI

Download the files, attach them in the assistant you use, then paste the prompt. Its answer is its own reading of the data.

  1. 1Download new-dwellings-consented.csv
  2. 2Attach it in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or another assistant
  3. 3
    Paste this prompt

    The attached CSV is new homes consented, from Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa. Describe how each measure has changed, naming its unit and period. Treat changes in basis and missing periods as breaks. Do not infer causation from government terms. Read the limits before comparing. Supporting datasets: new-dwellings-consented, dwellings-consented-per-1000.

Questions about building in NZ

The published figures do not directly answer the proposed question for this topic.

Related NZ data

These topics put building alongside other measures.

Arrivals and departures: MigrationPopulation: Economy and incomes

Building: sources

The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.

Organisation
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, Building consents issued (monthly, by region)
Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This work is based on Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Reuse limits
Photos, graphics and logos are excluded. Stats NZ logos and government emblems must not be used.
Snapshot
data/raw/statsnz-consents/2026-10-10_c9cb53de51c2.csv
SHA256
c9cb53de51c2f98610c6af360efbe83b19f7a4cb71c17f4ea3a6b42a8c821baa
Retrieved
10 October 2026

Building: sources

The source publication, licence and snapshot used to build this page.

Organisation
Stats NZ Tatauranga Aotearoa, New dwellings consented per 1,000 residents
Licence
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). This work is based on Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Reuse limits
Photos, graphics and logos are excluded. Stats NZ logos and government emblems must not be used.
Snapshot
data/raw/statsnz-consents-per-1000/2026-10-10_a95ee957ffa1.csv
SHA256
a95ee957ffa129adf95fb04916b7d40573715c0a424ccc7709f84246214d6c67
Retrieved
10 October 2026