The state of New Zealand building
39,737 new homes were consented in the year to May 2026, up 19% on the year before. A consent takes a median of 16 working days from lodgement to decision. The typical rent across the 156 suburbs we track is $590 a week. In June 2026, 136 liquidator appointment notices were published in the New Zealand Gazette.
Every figure on this page is dated and sourced. All of it is free to reuse with attribution to CheckMyBuilder and to the original source.
1. How much is being built
New dwellings consented, 12 months to May 2026. A consent is permission to build, so completions follow with a lag. Source: Stats NZ.
| District | New homes consented | Year before |
|---|---|---|
| Auckland | 16,862 | 13,864 |
| Christchurch City | 4,524 | 3,774 |
| Selwyn District | 2,314 | 1,382 |
| Queenstown-Lakes District | 1,909 | 1,743 |
| Hamilton City | 893 | 919 |
| Waimakariri District | 843 | 638 |
| Tauranga City | 754 | 431 |
| Waikato District | 689 | 609 |
| Waipa District | 545 | 468 |
| Wellington City | 525 | 437 |
Top 10 districts. Every district and the monthly series.
2. How long a consent takes
Median working days from lodgement to decision, January to March 2026. The national medians are 9 days of council processing and 16 days in total, the difference being the time applicants spend answering the council's questions. Source: MBIE.
Fastest councils
- Kawerau5 days
- Ruapehu6 days
- Waitomo7 days
- Wellington City7 days
- Kaikōura8 days
Longest total elapsed
- Auckland28 days
- Hastings22 days
- South Taranaki22 days
- Ōpōtiki22 days
- South Wairarapa21 days
Total elapsed time includes the applicant's own response time, so a slow number is not necessarily a slow council. All 66 councils.
3. What people pay to rent
Median weekly rent, January 2026 quarter, from bonds actually lodged with Tenancy Services. These are rents being paid, not asking prices. Source: MBIE bond data.
| Dearest suburbs we track | Typical rent |
|---|---|
| Remuera | $901/week |
| Ōakura | $900/week |
| Seatoun | $895/week |
| Ponsonby | $866/week |
| Aotea | $860/week |
Median across all 156 suburbs: $590 a week. Every suburb.
4. Companies going under
Insolvency notices published in the New Zealand Gazette in June 2026: 136 liquidator appointments, 114 applications to wind up, and 21 receiverships. 18 of the month's company notices were matched to building and construction companies. Counts are notices, not companies: one notice can cover several. Source: NZ Gazette.
Using these numbers
Free to reuse, including commercially, with attribution to CheckMyBuilder and to the original source named in each section. The consent and rent data are downloadable as CSV. If you need a cut we do not publish, the underlying sources are all public and we are happy to point you at them.
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