NZ: Dwelling consents fell 3.7% m/m in April - ANZ

In seasonally adjusted terms, the number of dwelling consents in NZ fell 3.7% m/m in April, following 13% growth in March, notes Liz Kendall, Senior Economist at ANZ. 

Key Quotes

“Multi-dwelling consents fell 6.9% m/m, following a 38.7% increase in March. Consents for ‘houses’ fell 1.4% m/m after holding at 0.1% m/m in March. Consent issuance can be volatile from month to month and some payback was expected after very strong growth last month.”

“Looking through monthly volatility, today’s figures are consistent with our expectation that activity levels will stabilize. In trend terms, growth in dwelling consent issuance has eased from 2.8% m/m in March to 1.7% in April. We expect this trend of moderating growth to continue, particularly given already-high levels. Dwelling consent issuance is running at a high level of 32,000 consents per annum and testing the limits of capacity constraints.”

“Cost pressures have increased. The value of consents per square metre is running at 6.7% y/y (3mma). This is a volatile proxy of cost pressures, but is consistent with construction cost inflation continuing at its current moderate pace of 4.7%, or perhaps even pushing a touch higher.”