Busy summer for builders

7 June 2019

The overall volume of building activity rose a seasonally adjusted 6.2 percent in the March 2019 quarter, from the December 2018 quarter, the strongest growth in three years, Stats NZ said today.

“Growth in building activity this quarter was driven by non-residential construction, including work on social and cultural buildings, offices, and universities,” construction statistics manager Melissa McKenzie said.

The volume of non-residential building activity rose 9.0 percent in the March 2019 quarter compared with the December 2018 quarter, while residential construction volumes rose 4.3 percent.

“The volume of building work has been generally increasing since 2012, boosted originally by the Canterbury earthquake rebuild, and more recently by developments in Auckland,” Ms McKenzie said.

Construction in Auckland led the rise in the volume of building work for this quarter.

The recent growth also reflected increases in paid hours for the construction industry, as shown in the latest quarterly employment survey data in the Labour market statistics: March 2019 quarter.

Retail spending holds up in March also reported on the rise in spending on hardware and building supplies.

The Government Statistician authorises all statistics and data we publish.

For more information about these statistics:
• Visit Value of building work put in place: March 2019 quarter
• See CSV files for download

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