builders specially short of brickies plasterers carpenters

rodders · Valued Member Joined: 25 Nov 2003 Posts: 134

Building costs keep on rising

08.04.2004
By ANNE GIBSON
A stretched construction industry, desperate labour shortages and rising material prices are putting the squeeze on large building jobs........

One developer said building costs had risen by up to 15 per cent in the past year.

Brian Sutton, of Starline Group, said Dominion Construction had been contracted to build the 132-unit Hudson Brown apartments in the Quay Park precinct near the former Auckland Railway Station.

But a skills shortage and fewer construction and subcontractor tenders being submitted by contractors had been a setback for the project.

Escalating prices did not help because building costs had risen by between 5 per cent and 15 per cent in the past year.

John Pfahlert, chief executive of the Building Industry Federation and chairman of the Construction Industry Council, said his big worry was the skills shortage.

Last year it was predicted that the building industry would be slowing down by now, but the opposite was happening, he said.

With building consents running at a 30-year high, Pfahlert said the industry had little chance of investing in the training that might allow it to cope with sustained peaks.

Big commercial projects aren't the only victims of rising prices and skills shortages. House building is also being affected.

Figures from Statistics NZ show costs "for the purchase and construction of new dwellings" rose by more than 8 per cent last year. The December quarter was the 19th quarter in a row to experience rising construction costs.

Other figures showed that on an annual basis, 30,923 new dwelling unit consents were issued, up 11.4 per cent on the February 2003 year.

Fletcher Residential chief David Halsey said prices of most house building materials were rising, but he was loath to single out any particular items as the rises were across the board.

"There's a general trend for suppliers to increase their prices because it's a boom market" he said.

The skills shortage was getting worse and particularly affected plasterers, carpenters and bricklayers.

Sydney-based research company BIS Shrapnel is forecasting the record levels of activity in New Zealand's building and construction sector to continue.

IN a paper released in February it forecast a continuation of an escalating workload and noted , that predictions of a drop in work levels last year had turned out to be wrong.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/businessstorydisplay.cfm?storyID=3559515&thesection=business&thesubsection=general&thesecondsubsection=