Study does Not Compare Apples with Apples

Housing Cost Study does Not Compare Apples with Apples Says Registered Master Builders

New Zealanders are increasingly expecting higher quality home construction and comparing the cost of Queensland kitset houses to homes built in the Auckland market is not comparing apples with apples, says Pieter Burghout, Chief Executive of the Registered Master Builders Federation.

Mr Burghout was commenting on recent comparisons made by Auckland City Council on the average cost of building a house in Auckland compared to Australian cities.

The Auckland City Council Economic Development and Sustainable Business Committee was recently told that industry comparisons put the average cost of building a small house in Auckland at 85 per cent higher than Australian cities.

“I would be surprised if there was such a marked difference in housing costs as stated in the paper to the Economic Development and Sustainable Business Committee. Given the competitive nature of the house building market in New Zealand, both in terms of building companies and building suppliers, I doubt there is any fat in the system at all,” Mr Burghout says.

Mr Burghout noted that there was a range of contributing factors that would factor explain any differences in building cost if in fact there were any, not least the volume and size of the two markets.

“A number of contributing factors impact on these figures, for example, there are more new homes built in one Australian state than the whole of New Zealand. There are also issues around the supply and cost of land, which is felt particularly acutely in the Auckland market. Issues with weathertightness in the past few years has appropriately lifted the quality of construction in New Zealand and if you add to this the ‘bureaucratic drag’ on the market with the regulatory impact of fees and the excessive delays by City Councils for building consents, that will by why buildings might cost more.” says Mr Burghout.

“As with everyone, we are also concerned about the affordability of New Zealand homes; Building Consent figures released by Statistics New Zealand over the past year have shown a decrease in volume in house building but in average dollars spent. If there is anything that can be done to improve industry efficiency and effectiveness, then we would be happy to explore it,” Mr Burghout says.

ENDS

© Scoop Media