Builders’ morale lowered by slump

Press, 3 December 1982, Page 4

Builders’ morale lowered by slump

Property reporter

Morale is low among Canterbury builders because of an almost 50 per cent slump in activity since last vear.

The secretary of the Canterbury Master Builders' Association. Mr Wayne Wilson. said yesterday that it might send a delegation to the Minister of Housing (Mr Friedlander), to inform him of the problems besetting the construction industry in the South Island. After Mr Friedlander's statement at a housing conference in Wellington in October that he was “only interested in facts and figures." the association asked the Building Industry Advisory Council to prepare a report on building trends in the South Island. It found that since 1975 the volume of work had dropped noticeably throughout New Zealand and that in the South Island over recent years the slump appeared to have accelerated.

Building investment a head of population, for example, had fallen steadily since the mid 19705. from $926 in 1976 to $603 this year.

The report attributed this to a loss of confidence by investors in the potential of the South Island and to its slow population growth. Because of the drift of industry and people to the north, it has recorded a net population loss since 1978.

The council predicted that.

on the basis of current trends, there was “little prospect of a recovery in building activity in the South Island" until after 1984.

The figures collated by the association for the Christchurch metropolitan area also show a slow market. The number of permits issued for new dwellings in September this year was 41.3 per cent lower than for September, 1981.

The figure compares badly with the national figures released recently by the Statistics Department which show a drop of less than 30 per cent throughout New Zealand. Mr Wilson said the October figures showed that the slump was accelerating in Christchurch. They showed a 47 per cent drop in the number of permits issued for new buildings since last year. “The November figures will be even worse," he said.

The depression has had less effect on housing at the upper end of the market than in the lower and middle brackets. Mr R. G. Mauger, of Mauger’s Contracting, Ltd, a leading builder of low-cost homes in Christchurch, said that he had had to retrench. While the demand for housing remained high, many people were unable to arrange mortgage finance or to service loans, he said.

The experience of other centres in the province repeats the Christchurch pattern. Ashburton’s town-plan-ning officer, Mr Peter Thompson, said that 16 per-

mits had been issued for new dwellings in the town from June to November this year compared with 29 for the same time last year, a drop of almost 45 per cent. The building inspector at Kaiapoi, Mr Jim Steel, said that the Kaiapoi Borough Council had issued 27 permits for new dwellings over the June to November period this year, and 40 in 1981. a decline of 32.5 per cent. Rangiora’s building inspector, Mr H. Heasley. said that 37 permits were issued from June to November last year and only 19 in the same time this year, a drop of almost 49 per cent. However, a number of "quite big alterations" to existing houses had been authorised during that period, he said. The New Zealand Master Builders’ Federation has said that although the housing situation varied in different parts of the country, it was gloomy over all.

It was worse in Auckland than most builders could remember. said the Auckland representative at a recent meeting of the federation's management council. South Auckland reported that the only area doing well was Taupo, and the central North Island representative said that the position was “reasonably steady with Taranaki the best area."

In the South Island. Dunedin, Gore, and Invercargill were said to be suffering. Westland was steady, Marlborough satisfactory, and Nelson reported a slump.