Consents value goes up

The number of building consents may be decreasing but the value of them has more than doubled.

127 building consents were issued in September, compared to 203 in September last year. However, the value of this year's September consents was $10,808,111, compared to last September's value of $5,149,819.

Southland District Council building control manager Kevin O'Connor said all types of consents had increased in number in September from the previous year except for miscellaneous category, which had decreased from 107 to 43. The 107 spike for miscellaneous consents during 2009 was associated with consents issued to connect to the new Tuatapere and Edendale sewerage schemes.

"New dwelling consent numbers were reasonably steady for September 2010 along with additions to dwellings and farm buildings. The significant increase in farm building value seen from $311,491 during September 2009 to $2,841,958 this year can be attributed to consents issued for four larger scale dairy winter sheds, which seem to be an increasing trend around the region at present" Mr O'Connor said.

For the year so far, 409 consents with a value of $22,358,114 have been issued, compared to 598 consents, valued at $22,014,419, this time last year.