The volume of residential construction work has fallen for the third consecutive quarter, according to new data from Stats NZ.
However, at the same time, non-residential construction work has again risen.
The volume of residential building work was down 2% to $5.786 billion, while non-residential building work was up 3.7% to $3.147 billion over the same period.
These figures are seasonally-adjusted and also adjusted for inflation. These figures also measure the amount of work actually carried out - as opposed to the building consent figures that measure approvals for building work. The consent figures have been also showing a drop-off from high levels for residential developments.
In terms of the latest building work put in place figures released on Wednesday, Stats NZ's construction statistics manager Michael Heslop said the June 2023 quarter "marked the third quarter in a row where the volume of building work has fallen for residential buildings but risen for non-residential buildings".
"These contrasting movements led to overall building activity in the June 2023 quarter being relatively flat."
The seasonally adjusted volume of total building activity was $8.943 billion in the June 2023 quarter, down 0.1% compared with the March 2023 quarter. That result is very much in line with economists' forecasts.
And it follows a 1.7% drop in overall activity in the March quarter and a 0.6% drop in the December 2022 quarter.
In terms of the residential construction figures, the latest 2% fall followed a 4.3% fall in the March quarter and a 1.4% fall in the December 2022 quarter. On a seasonally adjusted and inflation adjusted basis the volume of residential work has dropped from $6.169 billion in December 2022 to $5.786 billion in June 2023.
As far as the non-residential building work is concerned, the latest 3.7% rise followed rises of 2.6% in March and 1.9% in December 2022.
The value of building work put in place was $37 billion in the year ended June 2023, up 22% compared with the year ended June 2022.
Value estimates of building work put in place (in contrast to volume estimates) include changes to building costs over time (such as material and labour costs).
In the past 12 months, residential construction costs increased by 7.8% and non-residential construction costs increased by 6.8%.
16 Comments
They're experiencing what I went through starting October last year. My workload is really starting to pick up, so they'll be busy again, soon. Maybe not to the crazy levels we've recently experienced, but this is either a soft landing or we're starting a take-off roll.
As it stands right now around 90% of people in Auckland would not be able to purchase the property they own from scratch with income and rates at this level
Bang on point. That's why overallocation of capital (especially borrowed capital to be serviced with a relatively low income) towards unproductive assets such as housing is detrimental to society and economic competitiveness.
Fantastic
Hopefully this will bring the greedy and cartels back in line.
What we have seen in the last 10 years is why we don't want the private sector and the banking industry to have control over the housing market they are way too greedy.
Let the reset begin.
Thank You for undoing the Ponzi Labour great job.
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