The total number of building permits issued in New Zealand surged a seasonally adjusted 10.0 percent on month in August, Statistics New Zealand said on Friday - coming in at 3,166.
That follows the upwardly revised 1.7 percent gain in July (originally -0.7 percent).
Individually, consents were issued for 2,025 houses, 462 townhouses, flats, and units, 384 apartments and 295 retirement village units.
For houses only, the seasonally adjusted number fell 0.8 percent following an 8.8 percent rise in July.
There were 10,265 new homes consented in Auckland region in the August 2017 year.
"Auckland's building consent statistics are quite volatile because of the high proportion of apartments. Looking at the longer-term picture, Auckland has consented an average of more than 850 new homes a month over the past year," construction statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said.
Including alterations, the value of building work consented in August was NZ$2.1 billion, including NZ$1.4 billion of residential work and NZ$706 million of non-residential work. In the year ended August 2017, 30,736 new dwellings were consented - up 3.7 percent on year.
In the year ended August 2017, non-residential building consents totaled NZ$6.4 billion - up 3.4 percent on year.
The non-residential building types with the highest values were: offices, administration, and public transport buildings - NZ$1.3 billion (up 8.9 percent on year); education buildings - NZ$1.0 billion (down 21 percent); shops, restaurants, and bars - NZ$792 million (down 5.2 percent); and storage buildings - NZ$724 million (down 1.1 percent).
The regions with the highest value of consented non-residential building work were: Auckland - NZ$2.3 billion; Canterbury - NZ$1.5 billion; Wellington - NZ$619 million; and Waikato - NZ$465 million.
In the year ended August 2017, the value of consents for all buildings was NZ$19.5 billion, including NZ$13.1 billion of residential work and NZ$6.4 billion of non-residential work.
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