Building activity in New Zealand's capital region grows strongly: statistics

WELLINGTON, Dec. 6 (Xinhua) -- Building activity in New Zealand's Wellington region has grown strongly over the past year, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Wednesday.

The value of activity rose 27 percent on the previous September year, which is the largest annual increase ever recorded for Wellington, Stats NZ said.

In the year ended September 2017, the value of building work put in place in the region totaled 1.7 billion NZ dollars (1.2 billion U.S. dollars), up 400 million NZ dollars (276 million U.S. dollars). Over the same period, New Zealand construction prices rose over 5 percent, it said.

"Construction in Wellington has picked up noticeably this year, almost tripling the growth rate seen last year," construction statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said in a statement.

In 2016, Wellington was outpaced by growth in other regions, but in 2017, Wellington had the strongest growth in percentage terms, McKenzie said.

Wellington residential building activity in the September 2017 year was up 33 percent from the previous year, which included 704 million NZ dollars (485.6 million U.S. dollars) for new homes, such as houses, apartment buildings, and retirement village units, she said.

Non-residential building activity cost was up 19 percent, which included office and public transport buildings, as well as education buildings, McKenzie said.

Building activity statistics measure the value of building work put in place each quarter, unlike building consent statistics, which measure building intentions, according to the statistics department. Enditem