Building work drops off in September

The residential building sector continued to soften in the September quarter, according to data out today from Statistics New Zealand.


The seasonally adjusted value of residential building work put in place during the quarter fell 4.6 per cent on the June quarter.


Work on residential buildings accounted for 58 per cent of all building work in the September quarter, against a quarterly average of 65 per cent during 2003 and 2004.


The unadjusted value of residential building work was $1.89* billion, down $38 million compared with the previous September quarter.


The seasonally adjusted value of work put in place for non-residential buildings fell 5.9 per cent in the September quarter, following on from a 17 per cent rise in the June quarter.


The unadjusted value of none-residential work put in place during the quarter was $1.38 billion, up $222 million on the previous September quarter.


Commercial buildings -- which include shops, restaurants, taverns, offices, administration and storage buildings -- were the main contributors to non-residential building work, at $420 million.


This was followed by miscellaneous buildings -- social, cultural, religious, recreational and farm buildings -- at $333 million. Next was hotels and boarding houses at $249 million, over half of which was work done on prisons.


The value of all building work put in place in the September quarter was estimated at $3.26 billion, up $184 million on the same time last year.


Today's data follows on from a fall in the number of building consents issued in October. Last month Stats NZ reported the number of new dwellings consents issued in October were down 6.7 per cent on a seasonally adjusted basis compared to the previous month, and were 26 per cent lower than October last year.


- NZPA


* An earlier version of this story incorrectly gave this figure as $1.19bn