Rotorua will miss boom warns local builder

G J Gardner Homes' Graham Griffin warns Rotorua is in danger of missing out on the building boom. Photo/File

Rotorua builders are not surprised at the small number of new dwelling building consents issued this year, and continue to be frustrated at being unable to supply new builds.

New figures released by Rotorua Lakes Council show it issued just five new dwelling building consents last month, at a total work value of $1.46 million.

Aside from the five new dwelling consents issued in January, there were no commercial consents over $250,000 issued.

This does not surprise G J Gardner Homes franchise owner Graham Griffin. He said his business was consistently having to turn people away wanting home and land packages.

"We can't supply them with the land that they can build on."

Rotorua has a lack of new subdivisions, however there is land zoned for subdivision with potential of more than 1000 lots in new housing developments in Collie Dr, Baxendale in Springfield, Pukehangi Rd and the Wharenui block in Rotorua's eastern suburbs.

"But certainly nothing that is ready to go," Mr Griffin said.

"It all has to be subdivided. There's nothing that's going to be ready in 12 months.

"If we muck around for too long they are going to go elsewhere, and Rotorua will miss out on this boom."

Council staff said they had issued consents to build 115 new homes last year, up on the 76 in 2015 and 75 in 2014.

J Hodges Construction Ltd owner John Hodges said 115 new homes was pitiful, especially compared with the Western Bay of Plenty.

He says his firm's workload for 2017 was looking "just okay" and most of its current work was in the Eastern Bay of Plenty.

"The issue is that things are booming everywhere else but Rotorua remains static. There's just not the volume of work here."

Malcolm McHale from McHale Builders Ltd acknowledged that January was always a slow month with council closures and holidays, but said "more land in Rotorua needs to be freed up".

He is kept busy locally with renovation work thanks to homeowners who want to stay local, rather than move or build.

Rotorua's residential and commercial building consent numbers for the most recent three-month period are down slightly from the year before but values have more than doubled compared with the November 2015-January 2016 period ($13.9m) with a new projects total work value of $29.4m.

A total of 38 consents (including renovations and amendments) were issued for January 2017.