New Zealand residential building activity was little changed in the third quarter at its lowest level in about 18 years.
The volume of value of building work put in place held unchanged, seasonally adjusted, at the lowest level since the second quarter of 1993, according to Statistics New Zealand. The value of residential work put in place rose 0.6 per cent to $1.3 billion.
Non-residential building activity fell 4.6 per cent in the third quarter, returning to levels last seen in the final three months of 2009. The value of work fell 4.3 per cent to $1.1 billion.
Companies including Fletcher Building, New Zealand's largest construction firm, say weak demand for residential housing is eroding earnings and they're waiting for the rebuild of Christchurch to get underway to help offset slack demand nationally.
"Today's data confirms that the construction sector will act as a drag" on third-quarter economic growth, "although the weakness was not as large as we had feared," said Philip Borkin, economist at Goldman Sachs NZ.
