Residential drives fall in volume of building work

Driven by a fall in residential building work, the seasonally adjusted volume of all building work put in place fell 6.5 percent in the December 2008 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. The 13.4 percent fall in the volume of residential building work was partly offset by a 1.6 percent increase in non-residential building work. The most recent quarter in which the volume of residential building work fell by more than 13.4 percent was December 2000.

The seasonally adjusted volume of residential building work put in place for the December 2008 quarter is the lowest recorded since the March 2002 quarter.

The trend indicates that the volume of residential building work put in place has decreased for the last five quarters, falling by almost one-third over this period. During this same period the rate of decline has increased.

For the 2008 calendar year, the unadjusted value of all building work put in place was $12.5 billion, down 7.5 percent from the previous year. Residential building work contributed $7.3 billion (down 14.2 percent) of this total, while non-residential building work contributed $5.2 billion (up 3.7 percent).