00:00:00
Speaker 1: Construction, building, you need a consent. Of course you do. And Stats NZ yesterday told us that there's been a 21% increase in consents for new builds. This is the year to July. That's a good thing. Master Builders report out this morning says, yes, consents, but they are coming slowly. Could be faster. Thank you very much. Ankit Sharma, New Zealand Master Builders CEO with me this morning. Ankit, good morning.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: Good morning, Ryan.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: Good to see you. So all these consents that we've been seeing, this is not just a new thing, but the consents have been going up and up and up. Are the houses getting built?
00:00:34
Speaker 2: Not every consent results in a house being built, but we are seeing signs of building activity improving in the last six to eight weeks. And we're hoping that this increase in business confidence and consumer confidence, which we are seeing in the last couple of months, will continue and we'll start seeing some uplift and activity.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: What type of building are you talking about? Is it people getting renos, people building new houses? Is it businesses doing, expanding?
00:01:00
Speaker 2: What is it? All of them. So in residential, it's new build. These are both standalone and high density. Renovations have really picked up. And the numbers are generally looking better than what they were looking this time last year. So all of this points to we're heading in the right sort of direction.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Now, the consenting is too slow. And this is what your members are telling you. What are they kicking back with the councils, you know, when they come back with their RFIs and with their nonsense?
00:01:28
Speaker 2: A lot of complications. So one, there's a responsibility for building and construction sector to provide the right information to council. So I think we've done a lot of work to educate. If you don't provide the right information to council, they can't turn around your consent on time. We've got 68 building consenting authorities across New Zealand for a country of our size. Then you've got, you know, different interpretation, different systems. So that adds a layer of complexity. and consenting periods have always been higher. They are getting better, but it's probably an area we think we can improve as an industry. It will have a big impact on reducing build times and reducing costs.
00:02:04
Speaker 1: How much do you think we can get a build time down by and a cost down by? If we did all this, if we did everything, if you had your perfect world anchor, what do you reckon, how much cheaper would a house cost and how much less time would it take to build? 10%.
00:02:17
Speaker 2: And 10% will have a big impact. We won't get there on day one. And when you are looking to get a mortgage, you know, finance is difficult. A small reduction in cost can have a huge impact.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: 10% would be lovely. Thank you very much. So what do we need to do to get there?
00:02:34
Speaker 2: I think we need to have more consistency around building concerning authorities. Hopefully have fewer systems than having 68 different systems.
00:02:43
Speaker 1: Stuff which is coming, right?
00:02:44
Speaker 2: It's all coming. And all of that should mean that we should be able to consent houses quicker, which will hopefully, I mean, 10% is the best-case scenario. We probably won't say 10%. But if we start seeing 2%, 3%, 4% reduction and houses are building faster, I think that will have a positive impact.
Speaker 1: Construction, building, you need a consent. Of course you do. And Stats NZ yesterday told us that there's been a 21% increase in consents for new builds. This is the year to July. That's a good thing. Master Builders report out this morning says, yes, consents, but they are coming slowly. Could be faster. Thank you very much. Ankit Sharma, New Zealand Master Builders CEO with me this morning. Ankit, good morning.
00:00:23
Speaker 2: Good morning, Ryan.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: Good to see you. So all these consents that we've been seeing, this is not just a new thing, but the consents have been going up and up and up. Are the houses getting built?
00:00:34
Speaker 2: Not every consent results in a house being built, but we are seeing signs of building activity improving in the last six to eight weeks. And we're hoping that this increase in business confidence and consumer confidence, which we are seeing in the last couple of months, will continue and we'll start seeing some uplift and activity.
00:00:53
Speaker 1: What type of building are you talking about? Is it people getting renos, people building new houses? Is it businesses doing, expanding?
00:01:00
Speaker 2: What is it? All of them. So in residential, it's new build. These are both standalone and high density. Renovations have really picked up. And the numbers are generally looking better than what they were looking this time last year. So all of this points to we're heading in the right sort of direction.
00:01:16
Speaker 1: Fantastic. Now, the consenting is too slow. And this is what your members are telling you. What are they kicking back with the councils, you know, when they come back with their RFIs and with their nonsense?
00:01:28
Speaker 2: A lot of complications. So one, there's a responsibility for building and construction sector to provide the right information to council. So I think we've done a lot of work to educate. If you don't provide the right information to council, they can't turn around your consent on time. We've got 68 building consenting authorities across New Zealand for a country of our size. Then you've got, you know, different interpretation, different systems. So that adds a layer of complexity. and consenting periods have always been higher. They are getting better, but it's probably an area we think we can improve as an industry. It will have a big impact on reducing build times and reducing costs.
00:02:04
Speaker 1: How much do you think we can get a build time down by and a cost down by? If we did all this, if we did everything, if you had your perfect world anchor, what do you reckon, how much cheaper would a house cost and how much less time would it take to build? 10%.
00:02:17
Speaker 2: And 10% will have a big impact. We won't get there on day one. And when you are looking to get a mortgage, you know, finance is difficult. A small reduction in cost can have a huge impact.
00:02:30
Speaker 1: 10% would be lovely. Thank you very much. So what do we need to do to get there?
00:02:34
Speaker 2: I think we need to have more consistency around building concerning authorities. Hopefully have fewer systems than having 68 different systems.
00:02:43
Speaker 1: Stuff which is coming, right?
00:02:44
Speaker 2: It's all coming. And all of that should mean that we should be able to consent houses quicker, which will hopefully, I mean, 10% is the best-case scenario. We probably won't say 10%. But if we start seeing 2%, 3%, 4% reduction and houses are building faster, I think that will have a positive impact.
