Builders pin hopes on Spring as consents fall

The number of new houses being built in New Zealand is still falling and many builders have little work booked.

Statistics NZ said yesterday that 20,902 new housing consents were granted in the year to June last year but that fell to just 12,309 consents in the same period this year.

When apartments were included, consents were issued for 14,175 new housing units, the lowest for a June year since Statistics NZ began gathering data in April 1965.

Commercial building is also suffering. The value of non-residential building consents was $307 million in June, the lowest monthly value since September 2007. But data in April and May showed the two highest monthly values since the series began in 1965.

Warwick Quinn, Master Builders Federation chief executive in Wellington, said many builders who had been booked up for up to a year previously now had work for only the next two to three months.

He expected activity to pick up in Spring.

Many of his 1800 member companies, which have 15,000 employees and subcontractors, are finding a rising number of tenders on new work, he said.

Builders in Auckland, the Waikato and Canterbury had suffered the most in the downturn and clients were slower to make decisions about new house starts, Quinn said.

But low interest rates and good immigration figures pointed to a sector recovery.

A building productivity taskforce chaired by Auckland University's property services director Peter Fehl last week predicted housing shortages. It reported to the Government and sought a large number of changes in laws so productivity could be lifted.

ASB economist Jane Turner said dwelling consents had remained steady at low levels over the past few months, but they were expected to pick up in the year's second half.

UBS economist Robin Clements said the seasonally adjusted number of authorised new dwellings fell 9.5 per cent between May and June.

NEW HOUSES

Year to June

2004: 26,877

2005: 22,667

2006: 22,303

2007: 23,344

2008: 20,902

2009: 12,309