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New Zealand home building surges amid housing crisis

Xinhua, August 31, 2015 Adjust font size:

Consents for the construction of new homes in New Zealand last month reached a decade high as the country struggles with a housing crisis.

The number of new homes approved soared 24 percent year on year to hit 2,824 in July, figures from the government statistics agency showed Monday.

"This was the highest number of new dwellings consented in a month since March 2005," Statistics New Zealand business indicators manager Neil Kelly said in a statement.

In the largest city of Auckland, home to a quarter of the population, the total was up 31 percent to 1,116.

The government welcomed the figures, particularly for Auckland, where rocketing house prices have prompted the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) to warn that the overheated market is a risk to national financial stability.

Housing Minister Nick Smith said the monthly total of new homes consented in Auckland had tipped 1,000 point for the first time in a decade.

The house build rate in Auckland had grown over 20 percent a year since 2012 -- the longest and strongest period of growth ever, Smith said in a statement.

The RBNZ and the government have take a series of measures to cool investor interest in the Auckland market with new initiatives to tax gains coming into effect on Oct. 1 and stricter loan-to- value ratio rules for investors from Nov. 1. Endi