The residential property sector continued to be the doldrums previous month with the unimpressive pace of the economic recovery still putting pressure on the new building permits.

The seasonally adjusted number of new buildings to be authorised, besides apartments decreased by 1.1% down to 1,096 in October as against in last month, as says the data issued by Statistics New Zealand.

This is the fourth consecutive month that such a decrease has happened, and that has experienced a decrease in the number of new dwellings 20% since March.

The Building consents have decreased by 46% since June 2007, which had seen the peak in the property market.

If apartments are included in the count, which are traditionally volatile, then the number of new housing units authorised has decreased by 2% down to 1.154, after a 0.2% increase last month.

According to Phil Borkin, economist at Goldman Sachs & Partners New Zealand Ltd., the weakness of the dwelling consent issuance is indicating that the recent pick up in the residential construction activity is going to reverse into the end of this year and into 2011.

It is clear that the bad condition of the housing market is pressurizing the activities and sentiments across the country.