Construction Industry Still Showing Stability

Construction Industry Still Showing Stability

Continuing stability in the building and construction industry follows the trend that Registered Master Builders Federation has been signalling for some time. “We still expect some softening throughout the remainder of 2007 and early 2008, but current statistics show positive activity in the sector,” says Pieter Burghout CEO, Registered Master Builders.

New housing consents issued for July 2007 totalled 2160, an increase of just 15 from July 2006. New apartment consents dropped from 257 this time last year to 185 and there was a significant decrease from last month’s figures of 561. Waikato, Wellington and Nelson had the largest increases on July 2006. There were 74 fewer consents issues in the North Island and 96 more in the South Island compared to July 2006.

The value of residential building consents released today by Statistics New Zealand’s showed an 11 percent increase on last year, a total of $679 million.

The number, year to date, of residential consents is sitting at 26,553 for the 12 months to July 2007 compared to 25,703 for July last year.

With a total value of $353 million, consents for non-residential buildings in July 2007 showed a significant 25 percent increase on July 2006. The largest increase was in social, cultural and religious buildings with shops, taverns and restaurants still featuring strongly. Offices and administration buildings contributed to 23 percent of the total value of non-residential consents for July 2007.

“Overall, the July 2007 consent numbers show that the construction market continues to follow the same, stable trend it has been in for the last few months,” says Ashley Hartley, President of the Registered Master Builders Federation. “This month’s decrease in apartment consents, even though overall consent numbers have remained consistent, shows that people are building higher quality, stand alone residential properties. This bodes well for our builders and the industry as a whole.”

ENDS

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