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By Urban editor Graham Hawkes
Builders are beside themselves.
They’ve beseeched the new government to do something about what they call the deepening crisis in the building and construction industry.
The Registered Master Builders Federation says the number of new housing consents authorised in October was the lowest monthly total for more than 16 years, at just 1,173.
They warn of layoffs in the industry, company failures – in short, a crisis.
Now, I don’t have a stack of statistics that indicate all the reasons why this slump in new house building has occurred.
I’m sure it has a lot to do with relatively high interest rates during the past year. It will have a lot to do with the cost of new houses.
It will have something to do with the numbers of kiwis heading off to Australia. It will be at least partly due to the cost of land.
But there’s another reason – it occurs to me – that the Registered Master Builders Federation probably doesn’t want to face up to.
I could probably afford to have a new house built for me. But really, why would I? Why would I pay to have a new house built when the country is still smack in the middle of a leaky homes crisis?
As I write this, the new Minister of Housing, Maurice Williamson, is calling for an investigation into allegations surrounding the use of under-strength timber in some buildings in the Auckland region over the past 18 months.
So let me think about this.
I decide to have a new house built for me at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the house doesn’t fall over almost immediately because of under-strength timber in the frame, it will undoubtedly start to leak the moment winter hits.
If I can find the builder later, he will blame it on the council inspectors, or the architects, or the suppliers, or – if all else fails – his subbies - who are now working in the mines near Perth.
Meanwhile, I’ve lost more than half the value of my new house and the place is virtually unsaleable.
Now okay…things have changed, procedures are in place, the industry knows (presumably) that they can't get away with the egregious short cuts of 10 years ago.
But really, would I trust the system well enough to have a new house built? No way. And so, is it really any wonder that the number of new houses being built in New Zealand has slumped recently? I mean, here’s a memo:
Dear Master Builders Federation, is it really so difficult to believe?
Yours faithfully,
Graham Hawkes
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COMMENTS
I would quite agree to the whole of your speculation/rant. As a man at the typical age group to be desiring to move to a bigger, better place - I briefly consider buying new.
True, this has been before and during this NZ housing debacle - and my main motivation has been aesthetics.
99% of the houses built today look like the other 99%.
If I wanted a new house, I'd move to Sydney. Looks the same.
Funny that.
People are no longer splashing out on things, the purses are stretched thin, and I live in a massive old style villa with bay windows.
Im sorry for you builders, and not in the way you'd think.
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