New Zealand's building activity has topped its highest level in a decade, underpinned by a 5% increase in commercial and infrastructure work, largely in Canterbury and Wellington.
Statistics New Zealand said more than $4billion worth of building work was put in place during the quarter to June, up almost 8% on the year before.
It was the highest quarterly value recorded during the past 50 years - representing almost $900 worth of building work per person.
Westpac senior economist Satish Ranchhod said with the total building work put in place rising 1.6%, that took the level of building activity to its highest in 10 years.
''The result was stronger than market forecasts for a 0.5% increase, but close to our expectation for a 1.9% increase,'' Mr Ranchhod said in a statement.
June's building activity was underpinned by a 5% increase in non-residential construction work, which included a further strong lift in Canterbury activity, plus an increase in activity in Wellington.
''The figures reinforce the message that residential construction in Canterbury is starting to ease back after several years of strong activity focused on replacing the city's damaged housing stock,'' he said.
SNZ's business indicators manager Neil Kelly said the value of both residential and non-residential building work increased overall, with Auckland residential work growing, while in Canterbury most of the growth was in non-residential work.
The overall building activity volume grew to a level last seen 10 years ago in the June 2005 quarter, the previous series peak, Mr Kelly said.
Mr Ranchhod said looking back at the past 12 months overall, the level of building activity was up 10.5%.
''In addition to the significant amount of work completed in Canterbury over the past year, there has also been a large amount of work completed in Wellington, as well as continued gains in Auckland,'' he said.
For the year ahead, Mr Ranchhod expected the level of construction to remain strong, but that growth would ease off.
''Underlying this is a continuing shift in the geographic centre of construction activity,'' he said. In Canterbury, which had driven much of the recent construction strength, the rebuilding of homes was now well advanced and residential consent issuance had levelled off.
At the same time, non-residential construction in Canterbury has been increasing, and demand conditions in Auckland had been strengthening.
Building activity
-National building activity increase 1.6%
- Residential building activity fell 1%
- Non-residential building activity rose 5.2%
- Auckland up 4.3%*
- Wellington up 17%
- Rest of North Island (excluding Auckland, Waikato and Wellington) up 4.3%
- Canterbury up 11%*
- Rest of South Island up 13%
*Not seasonally adjusted.
Source: SNZ
