Further confirmation the economy is gathering a good head of steam has come in figures showing building consents at a six-year high and net migration gains running at about 34,000 annually.
Statistics New Zealand figures show that, in seasonally adjusted terms, the country gained a net 2800 permanent migrants last month.
It's been about that level on a monthly basis since September, after rising from near zero in December 2012.
Statistics New Zealand said councils consented 2169 new dwellings in December, a rise of 7.6 percent. In 2013, consents were given for more than 21,000 houses up 26 percent from 2012.
Deutsche Bank economist Darren Gibbs said the encouraging thing about the December figures was that it was not just apartments that were driving the pick-up in the consent figures.
He said there was a steady increase in single family consents, up almost 11 percent month-on-month, which suggests there is greater breadth in terms of the pick-up in housing.
Mr Gibbs said there was also a strong increase in December in terms of net migration and it's four months in a row there have been similar figures.
He said figures released by the Reserve Bank this week show the lending restrictions are having an effect.
"The number of high LVR (loan-to-value ratio) mortgages has dropped below six percent of total originations where as back in September it was running at over twenty-five percent."
Mr Gibbs said in seasonally adjusted terms house prices in December were down 0.1 percent for the month, so at this point the restrictions are having an impact.
But he said although the restrictions take a segment out of the housing market, there is also an underlying economic recovery and strong migrant flows, so housing demand is still likely pick up after a period.
