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| Information about the Building Consents Issued |
Availability
| Valid From: .. | 02/01/1973 |
| To: .. | Ongoing |
| Frequency: .. | Monthly |
Design
Purpose: Provides a measurement of the number and value of all building consents issued in New Zealand, with a value of greater than $4,999, for the specified month.
General Information ..The Building Consents Issued release summarises information on all building consents issued, for more than $4,999, within New Zealand during the reference month. The data are collected by the territorial authorities that issue the building consents. The Building Consents Issued dataset is full coverage for consents valued at over $4,999.
At the end of the reference period each territorial authority has 7 working days to collate data on the consents they have issued and deliver them to Statistics New Zealand. Following receipt of the data by Statistics New Zealand, the data are entered into the 'Building System'. This period of data entry takes approximately half a month, at which time the data are analysed and the release of information is prepared.
Questionnaires are not sent to territorial authorities. Territorial authorities provide disks or files with the data to Statistics New Zealand, which are entered into the 'Building System'.
Output Variables
Output variables are pieces of individual information that can be extracted from the survey/output data. Often output variables can be cross tabulated with other output variables, for example sales by industry classification. The list below contains all current and past output variables which have been released for this survey/output.
| Variable Name | Description |
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| Residential Buildings | |
| Dwelling Units | The number of new dwelling units authorised for construction. |
| Area - new dwellings | The total area of the new dwelling units. (M2) |
| Value - new dwellings | The total value of the new dwelling units. ($M) |
| Dwelling alterations and additions | Building work that is done on a pre-existing building, for example adding a room or altering layout. This category does not include new dwelling units. Value ($m) |
| Domestic outbuildings | The construction of stand alone domestic buildings that are not intended for habitation. This category includes garages and garden sheds, but does not include new dwelling units. Value ($m) |
| Total residential Buildings | The sum of all values assigned to Dwellings, Alterations and Additions and Outbuildings. Value ($m) |
| Non-Residential Buildings | |
| Hostels and Boarding Houses | Value ($m) |
Hotels, Motels, etc
| Value ($m) |
| Hospitals, Nursing Homes | Value ($m) |
| Education Buildings | Schools, Universities, Polytechnics. Value ($m) |
| Social, Cultural, religious buildings | Churches, Sports Stadiums, Museums. Value ($m) |
| Shops, Restaurants, and taverns | Value ($m) |
| Offices and Administration Buildings | Value ($m) |
| Storage buildings | The building type previously known as Warehouses.
Value ($m) |
| Factories and Industrial buildings | Value ($m) |
| Farm Buildings | Value ($m) |
| Miscellaneous buildings | Public Toilets, Car Parks. Since the change in the reporting of multi purpose consents (June 1996) this building type has fallen dramatically, as the code previously consisted mainly of multipurpose consents. This building type was referred in the past as miscellaneous and multi-purpose buildings, but is now referred to as miscellaneous buildings. Refer to history of changes.
Value ($m) |
| Total non residential buildings (number) | The number of consents issued for the above subcategories. |
Total non residential buildings
(value) | The total value of consents issued for the above subcategories.
Value ($m) |
| All | |
| All Buildings | The sum of the value of residential and non residential building consents issued in the specified month, including alterations and additions. Value ($m) |
| Non building construction | The value of consents issued for non building construction (such as bridges, marina's, wharves etc). |
| Total authorisations issued | The value of all consents issued (at over $4,999) within New Zealand for the specified month. |
| Location | Building consents can be categorised by the territorial authority that issues the consent (by definition the same territorial authority in which the construction is to be located). |
| Institutional Sector | Building consents can be categorised by the sector of ownership (eg Central Government, Private, Financial, Rest of World) |
| Building nature | Building consents can be categorised by the nature of the construction (new construction, alterations, additions, demolitions etc) |
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| Seasonally adjusted series | The number of new dwelling units adjusted to take account of seasonal fluctuations. |
| Percentage change in seasonally adjusted series | |
| Trend series | The number of new dwelling units when the impact of seasonally adjusted fluctuations have been removed. |
| Percentage change in trend series | |
Changes in Output Variables over time
Guide to Interpreting Data
Summary of Changes to Survey/Output ..From September 1989 onwards, statistics exclude authorisations of less than $5,000 in value. This decision was made to minimise data collation expense to both Statistics New Zealand and territorial authorities. This does not affect the data for new buildings, however there is a small under count of alterations and additions to both residential and non-residential buildings.
On January 1 1993, the procedure for gaining approval for building work changed from requiring a 'Building Permit' to requiring a 'Building Consent'. Under the Building Permit system, Government departments did not require a permit for the construction of Government buildings, which led to an under count for all variables. This problem was rectified by the introduction of the Building Consent System, which took into account the Resource Management Act. As a result, Government departments are required to gain approval before construction begins.
From June 1996, the floor area and value of a consent for a multi-purpose building (where there is more than one building type in a consent) was split between each of the building's main functions using a predefined formula. Where sufficient detail cannot be obtained, the building is classified according to the predominant function of the building.
From May 1998, a new building code was introduced within the Factories and Industrial Buildings category, to allow the separate coverage of electricity generation facilities. The new building type code was 608 - Electricity Generation Facilities, and covers powerhouses and dams that gain building consents. This code concords to the old codes of 1486 - New Electricity Generation Facilities, 2486 - Foundations Electricity Generation Facilities, and 3486 Alterations and Additions to Electricity Generation Facilities.
Since 1998 Statistics New Zealand has made trading day adjustments to the building consents series during the seasonal adjustment process. From May 2004, there will be a new method used to better estimate the trading day effect in each series. There will be small revisions due to this change in methodology.
In June 2004, the number of new dwelling units was more than expected. Several Territorial Authorities increased their fees for the issuing of consents, effective 1 July 2004. This resulted in many applicants applying in June, where they might have otherwise applied in July. The effect was most prominent for the Tauranga City (see data). The fee increase was for residential consents only.
On 31 March 2005, consent application fees were increased as a result of an increase in the Department of Building and Housing levy, along with new building requirements through the Building Act 2004. These changes apply to consents issued on or after 31 March 2005 and have contributed to the high number of consents issued prior to the changes, and fluctuation of consents numbers after the changes. Also, some Territorial Authorities noted delays in consent processing time after the introduction of the Building Act 2004.
Easter Adjustments:
Historically, three series have been adjusted for Easter effects. These are:
- value of total residential consents
- value of new dwelling consents, and
- value of dwelling additions and alterations consents.
From May 2004, there will be no Easter adjustment made to any building consent series. This is because there are too few years with Easter in March from which to estimate the effect of the Easter holiday . This change will have a small effect on the seasonally adjusted series. The trend series will be less affected.
Usage and Limitations of the Data ..This release is seen as an indicator of business confidence in the domestic economy. The logic behind this is that if a business (or an individual) is willing to invest in the fixed capital expenditure of property development they must have some belief that conditions within the economy will maintain current levels or potentially improve. This logic also applies in reverse, if people are not willing to invest in construction it indicates that confidence in the domestic economy is low.
- Building Consents data includes GST whereas the Value of Building Work Put In place survey (QBAS) excludes GST.
- When a small number of consents have been issued for a region and they have a high value then the average dwelling value for that region is overstated.
- There is no coverage of building consents issued for less than $5,000. This reduces the amount of data entry required by both territorial authorities and Statistics New Zealand, without significantly impacting on data quality.
Related Data Sources ..Estimate of New Dwelling Units - An early estimate of the count of new dwelling issued by territorial authorities in the reference month.
- Quarterly Building Activity Survey - A measure of work put in place on the consents that have been issued, which is published quarterly.
- Annual Enterprise Survey construction - Financial information relating to building accounting units and non building construction accounting units.
Sampling Errors ..Building consents is a full coverage output. Data from the territorial authorities provide information on all consents over $4,999, that are issued within territorial authority boundaries, during the target month. Therefore there is no sample error.
Non-sampling errors Manual data entry may cause errors at different stages of the information provision process. These errors can occur at the territorial authority or at Statistics New Zealand. Inadequate details on the consent form cause difficulty in assigning consent value to a specific building type. Where there is more than one building type in a consent, for example, the value of the consent is assigned to each building type using a predefined formula. The difficulty in assigning one consent value to more than one building type can only be overcome by a new, more complete consent form, which asks for cost by building type. However this raises compliance costs for territorial authorities.
- Currently consents are frequently obtained with the descriptions Retail/Office development or Factory/Warehouse. It is unlikely that more detailed splits will be available, especially since the initial construction may be quite basic, with only later consumer interest determining the Retail/Office split during fit out.
Caveats on Release ..
An example of the type of customised output that is available is contained below.
Catalogue & Reference Numbers
Year Ended in Current Month by Building Type (c/w same period of previous year) - Not in Hot Off The Press.
Other Comments
Classification(s) used
Glossary of Terms
| Term | Description |
| Building type | Defines the type of building for which the consent has been issued. |
| Dwelling | A construction that is built for habitation. Within an apartment building, each separate apartment is considered a dwelling. |
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| Alterations and Additions | Building work that is done on a pre-existing building (eg adding a room or altering layout). This category excludes new dwelling units. |
| Outbuildings | The construction of stand alone domestic buildings that are not intended for habitation. This category includes garages and garden sheds, but excludes new dwelling units. |
| Total Residential Buildings | The sum of all numbers or values assigned to Dwellings, Alterations and Additions and Out buildings. |
| Non residential buildings | All building types that are not residential. Includes the types listed below: |
| Hostels and Boarding Houses | |
Hotels, Motels, etc
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| Hospitals, Nursing Homes | |
| Education Buildings | Schools, Universities, Polytechnics etc. |
| Social, Cultural, Religious Buildings | Churches, Sports Stadiums, Museums etc. |
| Shops, Restaurants, and Taverns | |
| Offices and Administration Buildings | |
| Storage buildings | The building type previously known as Warehouses. |
| Factories and Industrial buildings | |
| Farm Buildings | |
| Miscellaneous buildings | Public Toilets, Car Parks. Since the change in the reporting of multi purpose consents (June 1996) this building type has fallen dramatically, as this category previously consisted mainly of multipurpose consents. This building type was referred in the past as miscellaneous and multi-purpose buildings, but is now referred to as miscellaneous buildings. Refer to history of changes. |
| Total non residential buildings (number) | The number of consents issued for the above subcategories. |
| All Buildings | The sum of the residential and non residential building consents issued in the specified month. |
| Non building construction | The value of consents issued for non building construction (usually bridges, marina's etc). |
| Total authorisations issued | The value of all consents issued (over $4,999) within New Zealand for the specified month. |
Contact Details
Liability
Statistics New Zealand gives no warranty that the information or data supplied contains no errors. However, all care and diligence has been used in processing, analysing and extracting the information. Statistics New Zealand shall not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by the customer consequent upon the use directly, or indirectly, of the information supplied in this product.
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