Hamilton’s biggest year of development

New home construction in Hamilton continues to surge, with new data showing a record number of residential building consents granted in 2018.

Hamilton City Council’s 2018 data shows 1440 new homes were approved within 837 building consents.

The 2018 figure is an increase of 28% on the 1124 homes consented in 2017 and is the highest number of new home consents approved since digital records began in the 1990s.

The difference between the number of consents and the number of new homes is more than half of all consents were for building multiple homes like duplexes, townhouses or apartments on one section. There was also a significant increase in the number of new retirement units (131) in 2018, now 9% of all new homes.

Northwest suburbs Sylvester and Horsham Downs have been the most active suburbs for new housing construction, while established areas west of the Waikato River are where we see the largest volume of higher-density living.

Resource consents as a whole reached a 12-year high at 1299 consents, although land use and subdivision consents were marginally lower in 2018 than in 2017 with 754 and 764 consents approved respectively.

The Council is investing $2B in the city’s biggest-ever 10-Year capital programme to set the platform for planned, sustainable growth and to look after Hamilton’s future transport, infrastructure and community facilities.

This investment includes fast-tracking the development of Peacocke, a 720ha area in south Hamilton, making it the city’s primary growth area. Over the next 10 years, Peacocke is projected to deliver a third of Hamilton’s medium-term housing needs and 26% of Hamilton’s long-term housing needs.