Wellington, Jan 11 (IANS): New Zealand saw 38,209 new homes consented in the year ending in November 2023, down 24 per cent year-on-year, the national statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.

The annual number of new homes consented has continued to decrease from its peak of 51,015 in the year ending in May 2022, Stats NZ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said.

In the year ending in November 2023, there were 22,251 multi-unit homes consented, down 22 per cent, Xinhua news agency reported citing StatsNZ data.

There were 15,958 stand-alone houses consented, down 27 per cent, Heslop said.

Multi-unit homes include townhouses, apartments, retirement village units, and flats.

"In the year ended November 2023 the number of townhouses, flats and units consented was higher than the number of stand-alone houses," Heslop said, adding that the number of townhouses, flats and units consented in the largest city Auckland was more than double the number of stand-alone houses consented in the period.

There were 2,958 new homes consented in the month of November 2023, down 36 per cent compared with November 2022, he said.