Building booming in Taupo District

23 November 2015

Residential building activity in the Taupo District has increased to levels not seen since 2007, with Kinloch standing out as an increasingly popular choice for those building new homes.

Since January, 190 building consent applications for new houses have been received by Taupo District Council, with 46 in Kinloch alone. Last year the total number of consents issued was 160, with 39 at Kinloch, for the full 12 month period.

Mayor David Trewavas said it was encouraging to see so much construction happening around the district.

Anecdotally we've heard that a lot of those building homes are from Auckland and further afield in the upper North Island, so it's great we're attracting people who want to get out of the big city or spend their holidays here, he said. In Kinloch, this is the most building activity we've seen for more than 15 years. It's a hugely popular spot and interest in it is consistently growing.

Council's consents and regulatory manager Scott Devonport said if current annual trends continued, there would be more than 200 building consents issued for new houses in the district this calendar year.

Although we've got a lot of out-of-towners building, there is still strong interest locally, with Taupo District residents taking advantage of historically good section prices, Mr Devonport said.

Kinloch is not the only place with a surge in residential building activity, Mr Devonport said. Inquiries were coming in from those interested in developing areas around Mangakino and Whakamaru. He said it was good to see the beautiful northern fringes of the district were of interest to developers.

Taupo town centre has also been a hot spot for commercial building developments in the past couple of years. We've had a number of significant developments that will help to boost the overall quality of the stock, Mr Devonport said. This was expected to ease as vacated sites were remodelled and new tenants sought to occupy them.

In total, the council had processed more than 800 building consents since January, worth more than $95 million, and by introducing a new team model had cut consent processing times by half.

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Taupo District Council

www.taupo.govt.nz