Statistics New Zealand’s figures for the year ending August 2024 show 33,632 new homes consented — a 20% decrease on the previous year. The number of multi-unit homes is at its lowest in three years; apartments are at a ten-year low. Every region except Otago recorded fewer consents than the year prior.
“The number of multi-unit homes consented in the year ended August 2024 is the lowest in the last three years,” said Stats NZ economic indicators spokesperson Michael Heslop.
Putting the Numbers in Context
A 20% annual decline is significant, but understanding its context is important. The benchmark year — the year ending August 2023 — was itself well below the 2022 peak of approximately 51,000 annual consents. The construction sector has been contracting from an extraordinary boom, and the August 2024 figures represent the continuation of that correction rather than a new deterioration from a stable base.
New Zealand has been building at above-trend rates for several years. The current slowdown reflects the impact of higher interest rates on developer feasibility, the elevated cost of construction reducing the number of projects that stack up financially, and the absorption of the significant pipeline that was built during the boom years.
Apartments Hit Hardest
The apartment segment has been particularly affected. Apartment development is highly sensitive to construction costs and interest rates because margins are tight and finance requirements are substantial. When both costs and rates rise simultaneously, feasibility evaporates rapidly — which is why apartment consent numbers have fallen to a ten-year low despite ongoing demand for urban housing.
The multi-unit sector more broadly (including townhouses and terraced housing) has also contracted sharply, reflecting similar pressures in the medium-density market that was strongly stimulated by planning rule changes under the previous government.
Otago Remains the Exception
Every region saw declines except Otago, where Queenstown’s ongoing development activity continues to support demand. The Queenstown housing market operates somewhat differently from the rest of New Zealand — driven by tourism employment, migration, and strong demand from buyers who cannot access central city markets — and this insulates it from some of the pressures affecting the rest of the country.
For the construction sector as a whole, the August 2024 data reinforces what most participants already knew: the market is softer than it has been for years, and the recovery timeline depends heavily on how quickly interest rates fall and whether developer confidence returns.