Canterbury's post-quake house building boom is showing signs of waning with fewer consents being issued for new homes in the New Zealand province.

In May, 549 new homes were consented in Canterbury, down 9.3 per cent from the same month in 2014, Statistics New Zealand says.

“Canterbury dwelling consents more than tripled between 2011 and 2014, but have been decreasing since then,” Statistics NZ’s Neil Kelly said.

May was the fifth month in a row that annual consents for Canterbury had fallen.

“Nationally, dwelling consents have increased slightly over the past year, following several years of large increases that were driven by Canterbury and Auckland. Numbers are approaching the level we saw between 2005 and 2007, but are still well below the peak seen in 2004,” Mr Kelly said.

New dwelling consents rose 2.2 per cent to 2,171 in May for the whole country from the same month a year earlier.

However, in seasonally-adjusted terms, the number was unchanged from April.

New dwelling consents in Auckland fell for the first time since January, down 29 per cent in the month of May to 651 – mainly due to a sharp drop the volatile category of apartments, townhouses and units.

On an annual basis, Auckland dwelling consents were up 6.5 per cent in May compared to the same month a year earlier.