Material Matters: Building downturn not all doom and gloom

BNZ chief economist Mike Jones said the $200,000 difference between building and buying was the widest ever. (Image: NZME)

Maria Slade

Tue, 13 Aug 2024

Trade credit reporting bureau CreditWorks says the housing construction sector is experiencing a correction, not a collapse.Since the housing market peak at the beginning of 2022, the number of new dwellings consented has fallen sharply.Whereas 51,015 new homes were consented in the year to May 2022, just 34,851 were approved in the latest May period, according to Stats New Zealand.But in reality, we are just back at 2018 levels, Phil Ashby, chief executive of CreditWorks (CW) Data Solutions, said.“We’ve had 12 years of a...

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