Inquiries rocket, says builder

Homeworx boss Gordon Sanson says activity is up since the election. Photo / File

The election is over and business has "rocketed", says one Hawke's Bay builder.

Data from Statistics New Zealand revealed the number of new dwelling consents in Hawke's Bay had remained stable from 375 in October 2013 to 376 in October this year.

By district, Hastings dropped from 215 last year to 185 in October 2014, while Napier had a slight increase from 131 in 2013 to 148 new dwelling permits.

Homeworx owner Gordon Sanson said his company struggled to find work during the September 20 election period but interest had since picked up.

"The first half of the year was reasonably steady but we noticed a drop-off in inquiries leading up to the election and a lot of our colleagues who we talked to noticed the same.

"We have found that in the past four weeks, inquiries have rocketed, so I think for some reason there was a slow patch in there."

Although work was picking up, Mr Sanson said "we are still pretty flat" compared with Auckland or Christchurch.

"The market is improving slightly, in waves, but nothing dramatic. We are getting reasonably good inquiries at the moment, so hopefully that will lead to good consents and work for the new year.

"The past few years have been wavy, with influxes of good work and then quiet patches.

"Overall it has been fairly consistent."

Nationwide, the seasonally-adjusted number of consents for new dwellings in October 2014 increased by 8.8 per cent, after decreasing 12 per cent in September. The increase was being driven by the Canterbury rebuild and the insatiable appetite of Auckland.

Statistics New Zealand business indicators manager, Neil Kelly said long-term building consent trends were expected to continue improving.

"In the seasonally-adjusted numbers we have actually had a bounce back in October but it's a bounce back after a fall the previous month.

"In September, the number of new dwellings dropped by 12 per cent and then bounced back by 8.8 but of course that bounce back isn't sufficient to override the previous decrease, which is why the trend has come down.

"At the same time, if you look at the pattern of long-term growth, you can see that year on year we have seen quite an increase."

The number of new dwelling consents was affected by factors such as population growth, in the case of Auckland, and the earthquakes in Canterbury, Mr Kelly said.

More than $1.3 billion of building work gained consent in October, with $877 million of residential work and $456 million of non-residential work.