Statistics Reflect a Better Year than Expected

November Statistics Reflect a Better Year than Expected

The November 2006 Building Consents statistics reflect a better year than most had expected, says Pieter Burghout, Chief Executive of the Registered Master Builders Federation. Mr Burghout was commenting on Building Consent Statistics released by Statistics New Zealand today.

“Residential consent numbers are somewhat down for the year, but the dollar value is slightly up compared to November 2005. Although this is the second decrease in a row following a 3.6 percent fall in October, we find that this time of the year tends to be quieter for most builders in terms of residential building consents, as they are completing homes they are currently building before Christmas,” Mr Burghout said.

Given the time-lag between building consents and work actually being undertaken, early projections at the start of 2007 will be that it is another busy period for the building and construction industry.

“We expect 2007 will not vary much from what has been happening in 2006. We assume that residential consents might perhaps go down to 24,000 new dwelling consents, as opposed to the 26,000 that was achieved in 2006 after a peak of 32,000 in 2004,” said Mr Burghout.

“As for the commercial sector we anticipate this to remain relatively steady for the next few months given the projected work volumes and building projects in the pipeline,” Mr. Burghout said.

“2007 will be a busy year in other ways for builders, with voluntary builder licensing being introduced in November 2007 – had the industry been less buoyant, licensing of practitioners might have scared builders away. As it stands, we can expect a steady uptake of builder licensing given the strong position of the construction industry – a very useful outcome for the industry as a whole,” Mr Burghout says.

ENDS

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