There was a pullback in the number of housing consents issued in April from the previous month.
Statistics New Zealand says 1219 consents were issued by councils during the month.
That's down nearly 6% from almost 1300 consents in March.
Including apartments, total dwelling consents were down more than 7% to 1385 in April.
The April figures follow an increase of almost 20% in total dwelling consents issued in March.
ANZ economist Mark Smith says a tightening of the building code is behind a drop in building consents last month.
He says the drop is due to the adoption of stricter consenting procedures by local councils.
Auckland led the way in April with 101 more consents issued than the same month a year ago.
Statistics New Zealand says total earthquake-related building work worth $28 million was approved in Canterbury in April.
It says consents for $381 million worth of quake-related work, including repairs, have been issued since the first earthquake in September 2010.
