The unadjusted figures show there were 1,497 new homes worth $306.2 million approved in December. That compares with 2,148 worth $298.4 million in November and with 1,285 worth $206 million in December 2000.
Statistics New Zealand says the high value in December 2001 partly reflects continuing work on large staged projects.
It says the trend in the number of consents has been increasing by more than 1% a month since January 2001.
Consents were higher in 13 of the 16 regions the government statistician measures compared with December 2000.
The number of apartment consents dropped sharply to 151 worth $25.8 million in December compared with 501 worth $31.2 million in November. There were 144 apartments worth $20.4 million approved in December 2000.
In the year ended December, there were 20,539 new homes worth $3.15 billion approved, up from 20,085 worth $2.91 billion approved in 2000. The number of apartments approved in the latest year was 2,813 worth $238.5 million, up from 2,459 worth $222.6 million approved in 2000.
