Slow start to year for building sector

FILE

Rotorua's building sector has had a a slow start to the year, with just two building consents issued in the first month of 2015.

Data released by Statistics New Zealand showed, the number of Rotorua building consents issued in January 2015 had dropped by four, from the six issued in January the previous year.

Meanwhile, the value of buildings consented in January across the entire Bay of Plenty totalled $42 million - up from $33 million in January last year.

Owner of Versatile Homes & Buildings in Rotorua, Stu Wilson, said January was generally a slow month for the building industry.

"January, as a rule of thumb, is pretty quiet. People are still away on holiday and not much happens in January and that was true of this January," he said.

"The busy months are from February through to June, so it has started to pick up a bit. We have got a few inquiries coming in now."

Mr Wilson said more people were choosing to build rather than buy because of the benefits of designing houses.

"It is a good time to build and I think people are recognising that. The other thing is that people are understanding now that there is a massive difference in old stock and what we build newly in terms of insulation and specifications so new buildings are starting to stack up," he said.

Nationally, the number of new building consents issued dropped by 3.8 per cent in January 2015, compared with December 2014.

This follows a 2.3 per cent decrease in December 2014.

A total of 1703 new dwellings were consented in January 2015, including 314 apartments. In December, there were 2199 building consents issued.

The regions which consented the most new dwellings were Auckland with 482, Canterbury with 467 and the Waikato with 180.

Nearly $1 billion of building work was consented in January - $645 million of residential work and $351 million of non-residential work.

For the whole of 2014 ending in January 2015, $14.7 billion of building work was consented - up 19 per cent on the year ended January 2014.

This comprised $9.5 billion of residential work and $5.2 billion of non-residential work.