WELLINGTON, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Nearly 33,000 new homes were consented in the December 2018 year, the highest in any year since mid-2004, the country's statistics department Stats NZ said on Monday.

In the December 2018 year, 32,996 new homes were consented, just below the most recent peak in the June 2004 year, when 33,251 were consented, Stats NZ said.

"The number of new homes consented in 2018 reached their highest level in over 14 years," construction statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said in a statement.

The all-time record was 40,025 new homes consented in the year ended February 1974, McKenzie said.

Nationally, the number of new homes consented rose 6.1 percent in 2018 from the December 2017 year, driven by increases in Auckland and Wellington, up 18 percent and 19 percent respectively, she said.

In the Auckland region, New Zealand's largest city, 12,862 new homes were consented in 2018. This is down slightly from the year ended October 2018 when 13,078 homes were consented, the highest number since the early 1970s, statistics showed.

There were 2,731 new homes consented in the capital Wellington region in 2018, just below a record 2,781 in the year ended June 2018, the highest since regional records began in 1991, Stats NZ said.

Nationally, the seasonally adjusted number of all new homes consented in the month of December 2018 was up 5.1 percent from November 2018, it said.