A look at New Zealand's affordable housing crisis and the way house prices have changed relative to incomes over time.
Video / Paul Slater
Brace yourself.
Today, the Commerce Commission releases its findings on house-building supply market competition.
The report's release coincides with the Gib crisis and new residential consents running at all-time highs.
At 8.30am today, the commission's findings are out on its in-depth market probe into the cost of residentialconstruction materials.
This comes at the same time as builders, angry about the Gib shortage, import rival plasterboard and annual consents run at 50,000-plus for the fourth consecutive month.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister David Clark said last year that ensuring we get access to fairly-priced building materials was a driving factor in the Government's decision to launch this big probe.
He had some fighting talk, referring to "long-standing concerns about potential competition issues, particularly due to the highly concentrated nature of some markets in the supply chain".
Clark didn't mention Winstone Wallboard's 94 per cent market share in New Zealand's plasterboard market, or other strong positions Fletcher Building and Carter Holt Harvey businesses hold in the market.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister, David Clark. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Productivity Commission estimated people in New Zealand pay between 20 and 30 per cent more for building materials than those in Australia.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson has also been outspoken, indicating a strong political appetite to examine high building material costs.
Last May, Robertson told attendees at an event hosted by Deloitte and the BNZ at their offices at 80 Queen St that we pay "far too much for building supplies". During question time after his presentation, he was asked if the Government had a role in the building sector materials. Robertson answered: "Certainly is. Those supply chain issues are global and they are going to continue.
"On the specific topic of building supplies, you do raise an issue which is in our work programme which is that New Zealand pays far too much for building supplies and you only need to look across to New South Wales/Victoria to see how different it could be," Robertson said last year.
Andrew Bayly, National's construction spokesman, said: "There's no doubt the commission will find there are definite areas where participants are able to exert significant market power: in concrete and structural timber and plasterboard. They identified that already.
"The biggest issue is whether entities are in a position to exercise monopoly power and thereby extract super-profits or excessive money. It's slightly disappointing the commission didn't look at that.
"Take plasterboard as an example: if people are getting a product like that at an internationally equivalent price, it's fine. But if excessive profits are being extracted, then it's disappointing.
"How do we ensure New Zealanders can buy lots of different products at competitive prices? This is where regulatory barriers come in. In some cases, problems will be caused by those. It's expensive to import products to New Zealand. It can take up to a year to get them approved," Bayly said, citing Government, BRANZ and others.
Andrew Bayly hopes for recommendations of change. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In many cases, market power is linked to distribution arrangements "and I'd hope the commission would have looked at that. They picked up on the concentration of supply. Some would say - and it's the same with supermarkets - if you have a wholesaling operation, does that give you the ability to ensure you have signific
