Building industry boomed everywhere but Wellington in the second quarter

The building industry continues to boom with just under $5 billion of new building work put in place in the second quarter of this year, according to Statistics NZ.

There was an estimated $3.121 billion of residential building work commenced in the second quarter of this year and another $1.797 billion of non-residential work. That took the total value of all building work commenced in the quarter to an all time high of $4.918 billion, up 21.1% compared to the second quarter of last year.

Auckland continues to be the driving force of the building industry, accounting for $1.828 billion of new work in the second quarter (37.2%), followed by Canterbury with $1.158 billion (23.6%).

The only region to record a decline in new building work in the second quarter was Wellington with $314 million, down 8.1% compared to the second quarter of last year.

However while the value of building work being undertaken is increasing at a respectable clip, its does not appear to be increasing employment in the sector.

Statistics NZ also estimates that the building industry generated 5.235 million hours of paid work a week in the second quarter of this year, equivalent to 130,875 people working 40 hour weeks.

But that figure has been remarkably flat since the fourth quarter of last year when it generated an estimated 5.242 million hours of paid work, equivalent to 131,050 people working 40 hour weeks.

That suggests that much of the increase in the value of building work being undertaken could be due to inflationary pressures within the construction industry, or a skew to more expensive projects at the expense of more affordable ones. 

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