New Zealand is in the midst of its largest building boom, says Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith, with figures showing Bay of Plenty is leading the way.

Statistics New Zealand says while building consents for new dwellings are at a higher level than in 2015, there has been little growth in recent months.

File photo.

Nick says residential and commercial building work has hit an all-time record of $18.3 billion and 29,000 homes, confirming New Zealand is in the midst of the largest building boom in its history.

'We have topped 29,000 homes being built for the first time in 12 years, with a 16 per cent increase nationally on last year. This is the longest and strongest period of growth on record.

'The contrast with 2004 is that construction grew then for three straight years whereas we are already in the fifth straight year of growth, and this is projected to continue for a further four.

'The second key difference is we also have record levels of commercial activity occurring simultaneously, with total building activity 29 per cent higher in real terms than in 2004.”

Ten of the 16 regions showed increases on new dwellings with Bay of Plenty the second highest region with 242 new homes built in the month of May a 67 per cent increase up by 97 homes compared with last year.

Northland lead the way with an 87 per cent increase with Waikato third with a 25 per cent increase followed by Canterbury 13 per cent and Auckland 12 per cent.

Statistics New Zealand business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly says building consents for new dwellings are at a higher level than in 2015, but there has been little growth in recent months.

'The trend for new stand-alone houses is increasing, but for all dwellings it is flat," Neil says. "Fluctuations in apartments, townhouses, and other dwelling types offset steady growth in stand-alone houses."In May 2016, 2520 new dwellings were consented, including 1,956 new stand-alone houses. This is the highest monthly number of new houses since August 2007.In seasonally adjusted terms the number of new dwellings fell 0.9 per cent in May compared with April, following a 6.8 percent rise in April.

The Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith says he is particularly encouraged by the strong new home consents for Auckland of 921 for the month of June – up 31 per cent from the 704 in June last year.

'The rate of house build when we came to Government was 10 per working day; the latest figures equate to 46 per working day. We are getting close to the required levels of between 50 and 60 needed to address Auckland's long-term housing shortage.

'The strength of growth in new home construction outside of Auckland is also very encouraging and shows the building boom has spread to centres such as Whangarei, Tauranga, Hamilton and Queenstown, as well as most regions.”

Nick says the pace of growth in building activity puts pressure on the skills and resources in the construction sector.

'We are working hard to ensure we deliver quality as well as quantity. I have recently announced changes in building regulations and have officials working on further improvements to ensure we maintain a high standard of construction work through this boom.”