Apartments drive falls in New Zealand new homes

WELLINGTON, Nov. 30 (Xinhua) -- Only 78 apartments were consented in October 2017, down 66 percent from October 2016, New Zealand's statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.

The number of all new homes consented fell 9.6 percent in October compared with September, when consents fell 2.5 percent, Stats NZ said.

"Apartments tend to be really volatile month to month," construction statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said.

"October's figure is the lowest number we have seen since April 2016, although we know there are more apartments in the pipeline," McKenzie said, adding that over 75 percent of apartments consented in the last 12 months were in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.

Despite a fall in total apartments consented in October, monthly consents for Auckland held up well, due to increases in consents for stand-alone houses, retirement village units and townhouses in the city, Stats NZ said.

Some 944 new homes were consented in Auckland in October, more than the average for the previous 12 months when 10,317 new homes were consented, it said, adding that the increase in Auckland was more than offset by falls in Wellington, Bay of Plenty, and Northland in October 2017 compared with October 2016.

On an annual basis, 30,866 new homes were consented in the October 2017 year nationally, compared with 30,225 in the October 2016 year, statistics show. Enditem