Volume of building work continues to fall

The seasonally adjusted volume of all building work put in place fell 0.7 percent in the March 2009 quarter, Statistics New Zealand said today. Both the volume of residential (down 0.4 percent) and non-residential (down 1.0 percent) buildings decreased.

The trend indicates that the volume of building work put in place has decreased for the last five quarters, falling almost one-fifth over this period.

For the March 2009 year, the unadjusted value of all building work put in place was $12.1 billion, down 11.1 percent from the previous year. This fall is attributable to the fall in residential building, which is 20.6 percent lower than for the March 2008 year. Non-residential building work is up 5.2 percent from the previous year.

For the March 2009 year, residential building work comprised 56.4 percent of all building work put in place, down from 63.2 percent in the March 2008 year.