Correction: We have been contacted by Statistics NZ this morning who advise that there was a transposition error in the data they released for Auckland.
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The latest data for ready mix concrete production in New Zealand is now out for the December quarter of 2013.
And it shows some amazing trends.
In Christchurch where earthquake recovery work is starting to ramp up, concrete deliveries were up 28.3% in 2013 compared with the year earlier. In Q4, the rise was 27.7% above the same period in 2012.
In Wellington, 2013 concrete poured was 15% higher than the previous year.
In Auckland, 2013 volumes were up 16.4% and the December quarter rise was 14% above the same period a year ago.
There was considerable variation in other regions, with Otago and Southland recording 20% gains in the December quarter, while the Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Gisborne and the Hawkes Bay all recording declines.
But it is in Auckland where the really big gains are being seen.
In the December quarter of 2013, 268,000 m3 of ready mix concrete was poured into construction sites in the Queen City, 54% more than the same quarter in 2012.
Over the whole of 2013 in Auckland the rise was an impressive 27.1%.
While this was the most ever poured in a single quarter in both Auckland and Canterbury, it is no record for the country as a whole. More concrete was being poured in the 2003 to 2008 period.
Similarly for Auckland, 10% more concrete was poured in 2007 than 2013.
But the recovery in Auckland is nothing short of spectacular.
In Q4 2013 the rise was +35% from the previous quarter in the Auckland metropolitan area.
It was a +54% rise from the same quarter a year earlier.
And for the full year, 2013 was +27% higher than 2012.
With the housing accord set to require substantially more residential construction yet to deliver actual builds, and the recent substantial rise in Auckland building consents, (not to mention the start of the huge Waterview Connection project), these increases seem set to continue for a while yet.
Yet they will need to grow by another +10% to exceed the previous record levels.
None of this activity will lessen the GDP growth data for Q4 2013 which is due to be reported on March 20, 2014.
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13 Comments
Thanks Hugh , a comment from your first link, if we go Japanese...
LR • a day ago
Think back to 1989 - Japan, houses in Tokyo where:-
Land prices in central Tokyo are now at levels last seen in the mid-eighties. After a long slow climb during the decades of Japan’s economic miracle, prices exploded in the late eighties in the frenzy of the bubble economy. Over the following decade, prices collapsed by over 80%, touching a low in 2002. Since then, the market has recovered somewhat and levels in 2011 are about 150% higher than they were at the lows. That 150% climb takes them back to one sixth of the 1989 price.
So your house in Tokyo (and you can consider the same scenario anywhere in the UK) was worth £1m - it's now worth £160K
Remember also Japan at the time had a big advantage over where the UK sits today, because it had a very strong positive balance of trade. The UK is dismally negative.
It's going to be a blood bath!!
AJ... The big difference is that in 1989 Tokyo prices were INSANE...Crazy...MAd ...INsane
I don't think a million pounds would have bought u anything in 1989....????
Check this link out.. http://housingjapan.com/2011/11/10/a-history-of-tokyo-real-estate-price…
6 million yen is about $58,000 US... and that is a per sq Mtr for just land...
We have along way to go to get to those levels.....
Maybe those 45000 reject Millionares, that Canada don't want, can help NZ along that road to insane prices..??
> Because of their lower grade construction than conventional on-site production building
I thought factory houses were quite common in Germany? Are these different?
You often see them on Grand Designs getting machined in Germany and then trucked over to some spectacular site in the UK and assembled.
We manufacture some excellent and very affordable flatback-deleverable homes here in NZ. Indeed, there is a display beside the railway line/ highway 1 at Mercer south of Auckland. As someone who regularly visits impoverished regions in the southwest Pacific I have some interest so I have inspected them and been very impressed. Yet, it seems that again there is a strong probability that another work and wealth creating Kiwi innovation will be lost to overseas developers due to a lack of local investment.
Hugh, its all happening in Vancouver.
Canada scraps millionaire visa scheme, ‘dumps 46,000 Chinese applications’
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1426368/canada-scraps-millionair…
http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1423370/exclusive-vancouver-faci…
Yeah..I reckon.
We have Globalization creating labour wage rate arbitrage.. ( deflationary effect on average wages)
AND,... We have the Asset price Inflationary pressures of Wealthy Individuals/Corporations Investing in Western Countries...
Throw this on top of everything that Hugh talks about and it is a one way street to serfdom for the average worker...
At a Political level why can't they see the obvious...???
With the Stats NZ correction, I am reminded of a recent story about faulty Australian data:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/australian-paradox-author-admits-…
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