Building slump levelling off - slowly

Tauranga's home building slump is starting to level off, despite the situation continuing to look grim compared with the buoyant market of four years ago.
Latest figures from the council show it issued 461 consents to the end of the year to June 30 - 57 fewer than the previous 12 months.
And while the trend was still in the wrong direction, council's building services manager Rob Wickman said the market was starting to level off. "Things are flat."
The year-to-year drop of 11 per cent was a big improvement on the massive 40 per cent drop between 2009 and 2010 when consents for new homes slumped to 518 - a drop of 311.
That was the crunch year for the council which has struggled to cope since the days when rapid growth underpinned the financial viability of Tauranga.
The peak for housing permits in recent years was 2007-08 when 1112 consents were issued. It was all downhill after that as the recession really bit, with a drop of 25 per cent in the following year to 829 consents.
The figures highlighted how consents for new homes in Tauranga have slumped by nearly 60 per cent in four years.
Mr Wickman said the new financial year had got off to a strong start with the council spending the next two months processing consents for Ryman Health's retirement village at Bethlehem. "It will give the year a good kick start."
The commercial sector was ticking along with four consents issued last month worth $1.7 million. Commercial development was lumped into council's "all other consents" which included home extensions and alternations.
May's figures for all other consents fell 9 per cent on the previous year to 118 consents but rose 26 per cent to 154 consents in June compared with June 2010.
Mr Wickman said economists had forecasted small improvements to New Zealand's economy in the second half of the year, but nothing outstanding. John Cousins