Covid-19 coronavirus: Peek into Builderscrack reveals state of the tradie business

Builderscrack MD Jeremy Wyn-Harris says business in the first week of July was up 35 per cent over the same time last year. Photo / Supplied

From the level 4 lockdown in March to the shift to level 2 on May 11, most tradie activity ground to a halt, bar a handful of emergency jobs.

How have our tradespeople fared since and the sites that proffer their services fared since?

Spark closed down WeDo, its hire-a-tradie site this month (as flagged on June 16).

But its older rival says it's going great guns.

Figures from Builderscrack.co.nz - where punters can post jobs that tradies pitch for - indicate robust activity that seems to go beyond a post-level 3 bounce.

"May was 11 per cent up on May last year, despite Covid, with more than 7000 jobs posted," managing director and co-founder Jeremy Wyn-Harris says.

Wyn-Harris says his 15-year-old company has weathered a major slowdown before - the GFC - so he knows the signs of early economic contraction.

And so far he's not seeing them.

In fact, quite the opposite.

"June saw our highest-ever number of jobs posted on our platform at a little under 8000 for the month," the MD says.

"This is a 27 per cent increase in volume from June last year.

"In addition to larger volumes we also saw the average job value increase by 24 per cent from June last year meaning we've seen a greater number of higher value jobs in the past couple of months such as extensions, decks and renovations.

"We've also seen a fair few leaky roofs due to the recent rain."

So from our perspective, the residential repair and reno demand is pumping along and at this stage continues to do so.

Wyn-Harris says the trend is continuing into this month too, with job posts up 35 per cent from the first week of July last year.

We're seeing the high demand trend continue into the first week of July. We're 35 per cent up on job posts in the first week of July from 2019.

Topping the list are roofing and guttering jobs including new roofs and general roof repairs; followed by general building work, he says.

New decks and moderate to large size renovations also feature in significantly higher numbers than the same period last year.

Wyn-Harris says Builderscrack has 36,590 registered tradies.

A spokeswoman for Spark declined to say how much the telco had invested in WeDo since 2018, when it took over the platform but said the amount was "not material".

Although the lockdowns did not help WeDo, the bigger picture was that it was jettisoned as part of a refocus by Spark that has also seen it shed other sidelines of the Simon Moutter era including home security venture Morepork (sold to ADT) and entertainment service Lightbox (bought by Sky).