There were 2,418 new homes consented in April 2025, a 17% decrease compared with April 2024, according to figures recently released by Statistics New Zealand.
“The drop in the number of new homes consented in April 2025 may have been impacted by the timing of Easter weekend and Anzac Day, with people potentially taking time off in between,” Stats NZ economic indicators spokesperson Michelle Feyen said.
“In the year ended April 2025, there were 33,554 new homes consented, down 5.2% compared with the year ended April 2024.”
Monthly home consents data is only one indicator of industry activity. According to new insights data from the Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ), a shift in consents has occurred during the first quarter of 2024. Building consents for standalone houses have increased slightly, whereas consents for attached dwellings have decreased by 17%.
The BRANZ Build Insights data tool also found that house prices are becoming more affordable, with section prices down 15% ($35,000) from their peak in mid-2022. However, the high cost of building continues to make new builds inaccessible for many.
The latest quarterly data (January–March 2025) reveals that the average price for a section and new standalone house is down 4.1% to $1,018,000, $43,000 less than the previous quarter (October–December 2024).
However, this remains substantially more expensive (+$201,000) than buying an existing home.
A driving factor for this is that house build prices have continued to increase in recent years and at nearly twice the rate of inflation. Latest estimates indicate that building a basic 200m² home, which would have cost just over $650,000 in mid-2022, will now cost $777,000. This represents a nearly 20% increase over a period when general inflation rose by 12%. Existing property prices have increased slightly over the same period.
“We’re still experiencing high build costs since the pandemic, from a number of factors, including increased material costs, higher wage costs, as well as the general inflation we’re seeing across all sectors,” BRANZ Senior Economist Matt Curtis says.
“But this new data is showing us the first signs of improving affordability in the new-build sector, and since 2023, the number of building consents issued for standalone homes has been slowly increasing, growing 5% in the year ending March 2025 compared to the year ending March 2024.
“We’re also seeing house sizes getting smaller to adapt to rising costs. The average size of new standalone houses consented in 2024 was 176m² compared to 184m² in 2023,” he says. “Generally, smaller and simpler houses are a good thing – they cost less to build and are also more cost-effective for people to live in, with less energy and maintenance expenses.”
Since 2022, the building and construction industry has faced significant challenges, including a decline in new start-ups and notable increases in business liquidations (up 37% in the year to February 2025 compared to a year earlier).
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