Building consent numbers on track for record year

Ōpōtiki District Council’s building team have processed more than 100 building consent applications in the first six months of this year, on track to be the most applications ever received in a year in Ōpōtiki.

Council’s Planning and Regulatory Group Manager, Gerard McCormack, said 100 applications were received during the first six months of 2022-23, which represents a 17% increase on the same period in the previous financial year.

“Should the same number of consents be submitted for the remainder of the financial year (which it looks like there will be) then we are likely to crack our highest number of consents ever in a financial year.

“The consents are a mixture of residential and commercial and a big boost in the number of applications for housing on Māori land.

“It isn’t just this year or this quarter’s figures that are high, there is a year on year trend in the right direction as the district makes up for slow growth over decades. The five year average work value sits around $15million but last year that figure was $49.7million and this year looks to raise that again,” Mr McCormack said.

Mr McCormack said that council had been expecting and preparing for growth for some time due to the harbour build and other investment. He said that there were long-standing consultants who helped out during peaks and seasonal high but staffing levels had also risen along with investment in new software to make things easier for customers.

“Almost all of our building consents are now received through the online portal which really helps improve efficiency and consistency on the team. It also works for customers as they don’t need to pay a deposit, they just get billed once the consent is ready to be issued.

“We want to keep working closely with developers who are submitting resource and building consents. It is particularly useful if they can have early pre-applications discussions with us for commercial schemes or subdivisions so that the process can go more smoothly. Good early pre-application engagement helps to address any potential issues or concerns early so that the process is much more efficient when the application is submitted,” Mr McCormack said.