WELLINGTON, May 6 (Xinhua) -- A record 41,028 new homes have been consented in the year ended March 2021 in New Zealand, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.

The previous record for the annual number of new homes consented was 40,025 in the year ended February 1974, Stats NZ said.

"Within 10 years the number of new homes consented annually has gone from the lowest point since the 1940s to an all-time record," construction statistics manager Michael Heslop said in a statement.

"The nature of homes has changed over time, including a shift towards building bigger houses in recent decades," Heslop said.

The increased number of new homes consented in recent years has mostly been due to a rise in consents for higher density homes, such as townhouses. The number of stand-alone houses consented in this period has been relatively flat, he said.

After accounting for population size, the number of new homes consented in the year ended March 2021 is still below the peak in the 1970s, although it has been rising steadily from the lows seen around the time of the global financial crisis, Heslop said.

Just over eight new homes were consented per 1,000 residents in the year ended March 2021, which is less than the record of 13.4 seen in the year ended December 1973, he said. Enditem

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