05-08-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
‘Wait and see' for building supplies
The proof of this pudding will most definitely be in the eating, with changes brought into the building supply chain.
The government announced recently thousands of additional building products including plasterboard, cladding systems, external doors and windows will all be easier to access in construction sites across New Zealand.
Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk said quality overseas building products have been given the green light for New Zealand construction, ending costly monopolies on a small number of products that are currently used in the country.
Mr Penk said it was 50% more expensive to build a standalone home in New Zealand than in Australia, which he called outrageous.
New Zealand Certified Builders Southland president Will Kennedy said it was good news for builders and hopefully the cost of a house but there were questions which remained.
"It is going to be good for the industry, bringing all these extra products into the country which we can use," he said.
"The issue is whether they are going to be up to standard. We have windows brought in for jobs from the designers and have noticed they do not meet the correct standards.
"So I suppose it is not fair on the local manufacturers. But we are just going to have to wait and see what happens."
The government wants to see more products on the market to bring competition and hopefully bring down the price.
Price relief could not come soon enough, Mr Kennedy said.
He said costs were continually going up.
"Every week you would get an email saying something is going up. Everything goes up but not that much goes down. Steel has gone up, 5% this month for concrete. Gib went up 15% in January.
"There are no real specific reasons they give. The cost per square metre now to build a house is $4000 per sqm. Back before Covid you were looking at say $2700."
He said New Zealand being a small country was a big hinderance.
"I think a lot of the manufacturers do not want to come here.
"We are a long way away, not a big market, not a lot of money to make. Are they going to come all the way over to New Zealand to sell their parts?"
At the moment there were not a lot of suppliers to pick from and builders were locked into one.
A couple of years ago Gib was in short supply and the price skyrocketed with builders caught out with clients unable to afford the new prices.
He said consent authorities would be aware of the new products coming into the country and would maintain their high standards.
One of the main issues was building standards in New Zealand were the toughest in the world and that led to increased cost to build houses, he said.
"We build houses which are 10 times better than than other parts of the world. Part of that is because of our geographical makeup, earthquakes and other stuff. But what they get away with overseas they would not get away with here. It does not, generally, come back at them."
