New homes consented in January and February were up about 30 percent each from the same months last year, says Stats NZ.

'The number of new homes consented in February 2019 is the largest for a February month since records began in 1966,” says construction statistics manager Melissa McKenzie.

'This month's growth was driven mainly by apartments in Auckland which are volatile month to month.”

In February 2019, 419 apartments were consented in Auckland, nearly four times the number consented in February 2018.

In New Zealand overall, 3,098 new homes were consented in February 2019, 446 of them apartments.

Annual home consents at 44-year high

There were 34,262 new homes consented in the year ended February 2019, up 9.7 percent from the February 2018 year, but still below mid-1970s levels.

'The number of new homes consented annually in New Zealand is now at a 44-year high,” says Melissa.

'Over this period New Zealand's population rose from about three million to 4.9 million”

Townhouses, flats, units and apartments drove the annual increase in new homes consented. Consents for stand-alone houses were relatively flat, up 1.7 percent to 21,420 from the February 2018 year.

The number of new homes consented in Auckland reached 13,846 in the February 2019 year, up 25 percent from the February 2018 year.

Other regions had mixed results.