Building activity continues to rise

The volume of building activity in New Zealand rose 3.8 percent in the September 2022 quarter, compared with the June 2022 quarter, Stats NZ said today.

Residential building activity rose 3.1 percent in the September 2022 quarter, while non-residential building activity rose 4.9 percent.

“In the September 2022 quarter, building activity increased across the majority of building types and regions,” construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said.

Volume estimates remove the effects of price changes and typical seasonal patterns. Between the June 2022 and September 2022 quarters, residential building costs rose by 3.0 percent, and non-residential building costs by 1.5 percent .

Value of building work reaches $33 billion

The total value of building work put in place reached $33 billion in the year ended September 2022. This is up 20 percent compared with the year ended September 2021.

The value of building work put in place includes both building work done and cost increases (such as material and labour costs).

“The past 12 months have seen costs rise substantially for both residential and non-residential buildings, which has been reflected in the value of building work increase,” Heslop said.

“In this time, residential building costs rose 15 percent, while non-residential building costs rose 11 percent.”

Non-residential building activity

The value of non-residential building activity was 18 percent higher in the year ended September 2022, compared with the year ended September 2021.

The building types that contributed the most to this increase were:

• offices, administration, and public transport buildings, up 43 percent to $1.6 billion
• factories and industrial buildings, up 42 percent to $1.5 billion
• storage buildings, up 35 percent to $1.5 billion.