Strong building growth continues in Taupo District

A steady increase in new homes being built in the Taupo District in the past 12 months has seen over $150 million of building work taking place - almost $40 million more than in 2015.

Taupo District Council issued 304 new dwelling building consents worth $157.8 million in 2016, the highest number issued since 2006 and three times the number issued in 2012.

Building consents for existing dwellings also rose, with 1155 building consents approved, up from 970 in 2015.

Consents and regulatory manager Scott Devonport said staff have introduced new technology to assist in completing the growing number of assessments on time.

"We carried out 6325 building inspections last year, over a thousand more than in 2015. The recently introduced Go-Build app is helping reduce inspection bookings by allowing owners, builders and sub-contractors to book inspections at any time without needing to contact council directly during office hours."

Along with the sharp increase in applications, Mr Devonport said a jump in applications in growing areas such as Kinloch mean staff have to travel a lot more than in the past to make site visits.

"To combat this we've worked to plan and map out assessments so our inspectors don't travel unnecessarily around the district. This is helping us to complete more inspections at a faster rate, all while making cost savings for ratepayers."

Mr Devonport said while the past year was a busy one processing a high number of applications, staff have continued to process 100 per cent of building consent applications within the legislative timeframe of 20 working days.

"We want to ensure building consents aren't halting the building process and have worked to complete applications in an average of six days. This means people are thinking about getting into their new homes faster, not worrying about long consent processing times."