Hon POTO WILLIAMS (Minister for Building and Construction): I have seen a report from Statistics New Zealand that shows a new record quarterly high in the number of building consents being granted. These figures show 11,291 new homes were consented in the December 2020 quarter—the highest quarterly number ever; beating the previous record from the December 1973 quarter, when 10,713 new homes were consented. For the year ended December 2020, the number of new homes consented was 39,420. The figures show that despite uncertainty caused by COVID-19, there is a lot of residential activity in the pipeline, especially for townhouses, flats, and units.