The August Numbers
Statistics New Zealand recorded 34,078 homes consented in the year ended August 2025 — a 1.3 percent increase on the equivalent 12-month period ending August 2024. For August alone, 3,047 homes were consented, a 2.3 percent increase on July’s figure. The trend is positive, but the context matters: Michelle Feyen of Stats NZ described it as having “started to pick up” while noting the current level remains “down one-third from its peak in mid-2022.” The recovery is real, but it is measured and still has considerable ground to recover.
Where Growth Is Coming From
Multi-unit housing is driving the recovery more than standalone houses. Of the 34,078 homes consented in the year to August, 18,323 were multi-unit dwellings — apartments, townhouses, and retirement units — representing a 1.6 percent year-on-year increase. Standalone houses came in at 15,755, up 1.0 percent. Auckland led the monthly consent figures, followed by Canterbury and Waikato.
The multi-unit dominance reflects several converging factors: urban intensification policies that have rezoned substantial residential land for medium-density use, the relative economics of scale in multi-unit development, and persistent demand in the rental market that favours investor-driven townhouse development over single-family construction.
What Remains Challenging
Interest rates remain an active constraint on the residential market. First-home buyers who would drive demand for standalone house construction are still navigating serviceability calculations that limit their borrowing capacity, and the improvement in rates from their 2023 peaks has not been sufficient to fully unlock this market segment. Construction costs, while moderating, remain elevated against 2019 baselines — meaning the affordability equation for new builds has improved only partially from its worst point.
The consenting numbers are a leading indicator for construction activity, but with a lag of several months to a year between consent issuance and actual construction commencing. The current consent trajectory suggests construction activity will continue to improve through 2025 and into 2026 — providing confidence to builders planning their capacity for the coming period.
The Recovery in Perspective
New Zealand consented over 50,000 homes annually at the peak of the post-pandemic construction surge. Returning to those levels is not considered a near-term prospect, and many in the industry argue that the peak represented an unsustainable surge rather than a new normal. A stable consent rate of 35,000 to 40,000 homes per year would represent a healthy and sustainable level of housing construction — and is achievable within the next two to three years if current trends continue. Getting there requires continued progress on consent processing times, construction cost moderation, and accessible financing for both developers and buyers.
