Building consents for new homes in New Zealand totalled 27,132 last year and construction value is now topping $NZ1 billion ($A914.20 million) a month, the government says.

NZ Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith is citing the latest Statistics NZ figures, and says they show the annual rate of home construction has doubled from 13,500 in 2012.

December's consents, at 2358, were the highest for that month in more than a decade.

Most of the annual growth was in and around Auckland, helping to meet the chronic shortage in the city, and accounted for 34 per cent of all consents in 2015 across the country.

During the year, 9251 new dwellings were consented in Auckland, up 21 per cent on 2014.

"The doubling in the annual rate of new home construction from 2012 to 2015 is unprecedented," Dr Smith said.

"This is the longest sustained growth in residential construction in New Zealand's history and is now topping $NZ1 billion a month."

There were 947 consents in Auckland in December, compared with 630 in December 2014 and 233 in December 2008.

Dr Smith says the Household Labour Force Survey shows the number of people employed in Auckland's construction industry has increased from 45,000 to 75,000 over the last three years.

"We need to keep our foot on the accelerator to ensure we support this positive momentum," Dr Smith said.