A few of my friends have gone through the process of building a new house over the past year.
It's been a good reminder that, as well as being a really exciting experience, building a new house can be frustrating and expensive.
In one case, it was a year between when building started and the owners could put a key in the door. In another, the property was finished quickly but there were a lot of defects to fix after the fact, some of which will have to be at the homeowners' cost, it seems.
New stats from Statistics NZ show the long wait that new homeowners are in for. In 1998, it only two six months on average for a property to be built after consent was issued. That spiked out to a high of 12 months in 2008 but has only eased back to 10 months.
It also indicates that buildings are completed more quickly in Hamilton, Matamata, Waipa, Tauranga, Selwyn and Waimakariri, and more slowly in the Far North, Whangarei, Thames-Coromandel, Wellington, Kaikoura, Buller, Grey and Christchurch areas.