Building industry still in doldrums

Tauranga's building industry continues to be hammered by tough times with the number of consents issued by the council during the last two months down nearly a third on a year ago.
The modest market fight-back since the dark days when the market collapsed in late 2008 has largely been lost.
"To put it bluntly, business is very, very average," Tauranga Master Builders president Kevin Norris said.
"One month you think things are picking up and then the next month there is no change at all."
He said it was the best time to be building, with prices virtually unchanged from two years ago.
Council statistics show how building permits issued in Tauranga plunged to record 18-year lows when the global recession really started to bite in December 2008.
The market then gradually recovered some of its strength until last September when it all started to go pear-shaped again, bottoming out last month to 122 consents - seven fewer than December.
The 251 building consents issued for the last two months was down nearly a third on last year and only 30 more than the worst ever December/January in 2008-09.
A quarter of December's building consents were for dwellings, with the rest issued for building alterations and commercial projects.
It was the worst-ever December for dwelling consents and the eighth-lowest month in 18 years. A third of January's building consents were for dwellings.
The poor performing residential building market skewed the figures because the $18.7 million value of commercial and alteration consents issued in December ranked as the third best December for 10 years, while January's $9.7 million of commercial and alternation consents was the fourth best January.
In contrast, it was the third-worst December for the value of dwelling consents ($12.3 million) and the third worst January ($11.8 million).
Mr Norris of Stonewood Homes said people were now casting their net much wider when it came to choosing a builder. Instead of getting a couple of quotes, people were dealing with up to five building companies, and decisions were based much more on price than good relationships and getting the job done.
Banks were also far tougher than the days when a percentage of loans were for contract over-runs where prices could not be pinned down with certainty - such as for the dig-out and drainage.
Now everything was nailed down and people were wanting to get as much as they could into their budget.
"Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it takes longer."