The number of new houses being built remained down last November.
Figures released today by Statistics New Zealand showed the 1168 building consents issued for new homes, including apartments, was the lowest monthly total since January 1992.
The consents were valued at $454 million.
The number of consents, excluding apartments, was 1052 - the lowest since January 1990.
Seasonally adjusted the number of new houses, excluding apartments, fell 4% from October.
Year-on-year the number of new houses fell 26% to 19,068, the first time since April 1994 that the annual total has fallen below 20,000.
The value of residential consents for the year ended November 2008 was down 19%, or $1.462m.
Non-residential consents were up 6.5%, or $272m, for the year, but down 0.8% for the month when compared with November 2007.
In 14 of New Zealand's 16 regions the number of consents fell. Tasman and West Coast bucked the trend, up 5 and 1% respectively.
The number of consents in Auckland was down 37%, Canterbury 49% and Waikato 45%.
