Tradies turning away thousands of dollars of work in Bay of Plenty

Phil Rutten, from Vibrant Homes, has built 18 houses in the last 12 months. Photo/Andrew Warner

A Tauranga plumber is so busy he is turning away up to $40,000 worth of business a week while those looking to build a new house in the Bay will have to wait at least nine months before they can move in.

Tauranga Plumbing and Hardware owner Craig Mccord said all of his staff were being offered as much overtime as they could do but they still could not keep up with demand.

"We turn down in excess of $30,000 to $40,000 worth of work a week, sometimes more.

"We are finding it hard to address our work-load because there is a lack of tradesmen full stop. It's not just plumbers, it's everyone.

"If we wanted to we could increase our business by 50 per cent," Mr Mccord said.

Normally the business would have two or three apprentices but they currently had eight.

Bruce Matthews, sales for Belvedere and Eco Star Homes said the building boom would not stop until at least 2020.

Mr Matthews said 40,000 people were moving to New Zealand every year while only 14,000 houses were being built annually.

"We are never going to catch up. We are in the same boat as everybody else. Getting plasterers, stoppers, brick layers and painters, you struggle. You just can't get them. There is more construction than there is work."

Mr Matthews said last year they were able to deliver a house in six months, now it would be nine.

In the past 12 months we have built 18 houses. We have five on at the moment, and there is potential for 10 new houses to start to be built in the new year.

Vibrant Homes owner Phill Rutten

Sam Nielson, from A1 Exteriors, said he was pushing to get eight jobs finished before the Christmas break.

"The market at the moment is nuts, there are too many people moving to Tauranga."

Mr Neilson said once his team came back in the new year they had seven jobs to start on.

David Shaw, from Shaw Builders, said they had a wait time of about nine months for a new build to start and could double their workload overnight if they wanted to.

He had three homes worth in excess of $1 million on the go with 16 builders working across them.

Vibrant Homes owner Phill Rutten said they had been flat out for the past 18 months.

Mr Rutten said in the last year he had picked up two new staff members to help with the excess of work.

"In the past 12 months we have built 18 houses. We have five on at the moment, and there is potential for 10 new houses to start to be built in the new year."

Scott Carrus, from Carrus Corporation, said there was a massive wait for builders wanting sub-trades to complete their jobs as well as delays with building inspections and issuing code of compliance on new builds.

"Most of the large volume builders at The Lakes are reporting they have at least 12 months of work ahead of them."

Tauranga Master Builders Association president Johnny Calley, of Calley Homes, said the building industry was under extreme pressure at the moment.

"There is definitely a longer wait period for sub-traders to complete their different projects."

Congestion at council from the consent point of view was holding up builds, too, Mr Calley said.

The Bay of Plenty industry was coping with it fairly well but trades had to be careful not to over-resource now on the chance the market really did slow down, he said.

"You want to facilitate it so it is consistent and so it is sustainable."