The number of permits issued for new houses in New Zealand dropped by 4.1 percent last month.
Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
New figures show housing consents issued dropped a seasonally-adjusted 4.1 percent in June, compared with May.
Excluding volatile apartment and retirement unit numbers, permits for new houses fell 0.4 percent.
Jane Turner - a senior economist at ASB - said the weaker monthly result masked some encouraging signs.
"What we actually saw was some very volatile figures in Wellington, and excluding this, we are actually starting to see a bit of a pick up in Auckland and Canterbury consents starting to stabilise after declines earlier this year," she said.
On an annual basis, the value of residential work increased by nearly 7 percent to $832 million last month, while non-residential work fell 7.5 percent to $454m.