Consents keep dropping but the energy in the building sector may be beginning to turn.

Stats NZ figures show new home consents fell 3.8% in the year to May and plunged 8.6% for multi-unit dwellings.

Stats NZ says it's levelling off, but NZIER's latest Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion shows only 3% of building firms expect conditions to improve, down from 6% three months ago.

But Combined Building Supplies Co-Op CEO Carl Taylor told Mike Hosking that building consent data is only a small part of the industry, and as a whole, it’s starting to feel better across the board.

He says that some stats are normally three or four months behind, and instead they track what their members are spending across their merchants, which has seen a 10% increase on the previous month.

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