Building consents for new houses rose 10% in November.
Figures from Statistics New Zealand show that when seasonal factors are accounted for, the number of consents rose by 4.6% in November after falling nearly 2% the month before.
Canterbury led the way with 413 consents issued during the month, the highest number since 417 in May 2007.
The value of earthquake-related building consents in Christchurch totalled $59 million for the month.
Consents in Auckland numbered 432 during the month, unchanged from the same month the year before, and down from a high of 511 in March.
Deutsche Bank economist Darren Gibbs said consents for the latest three months are up on the same period a year ago but are still lagging behind the city's demand for new houses.
"Clearly there's issues around availability of land, we're certainly not seeing the size of pick up in construction that we've seen in Auckland we've seen in the past, in response to the pick up in house sales and the pick up in house prices."
