The claims about ‘‘huge delays'' have come despite a 15% drop in the number of building consent applications received by LE.
However, LE director said building consents were being processed at an average length of 26 working days.
He wanted to see this shortened to 20 working days in the future.
Many builders were lumping ‘‘requests for additional information'' from LE staff and adding these to consent application processing times, he said.
‘‘The 26 working-day average for building consents does not include any requests for additional information. If extra information is needed then this holds up the consent application process,'' Mr Dobbie said.
Despite a 15% drop in consent applications - 290 for January and February, down from 341 for the same period last year - Mr Dobbie said a ‘‘huge influx'' of consents were received at the end of 2007, which had clogged the system.
Mr Dobbie claimed LE had processed 333 building consent applications since the beginning of the year, and has managed to get 331 of them back to applicants.
The figures did not ‘‘add up'' for a first-time home buyer, building in Lake Hawea's newest residential subdivision, Timsfield.
‘‘We've been waiting for ages and it's becoming a joke. At first, I was annoyed at our builders but there's really little they can do about it,'' a spokesman said.
Mr Dobbie said he could not comment on individual cases, but there was a lot more work in processing building consent applications than there used to be.
The Otago Daily Times approached a small number of builders and firms in Wanaka and Queenstown. Nearly all expressed frustration at the amount of time taken to process building consents, but were reluctant to talk on the record.
Two building firms who were prepared to, both said ‘‘in their experience'' consent applications usually took an average of six weeks, or 30 working days.
David Reid Homes' Wanaka director Richard Fairbairn said his firm specialised in ‘‘one-off designs,'' for clients, who often wanted ‘‘larger''homes.
‘‘We can understand these can take a bit longer than average to process. But, I've never ever had an application back within 20 days,'' he said.
G.J. Gardner Queenstown Wanaka franchise owner Laurie Mains said it was frustrating to see consent times dragging out. However, he believed ‘‘completely over the top'' additional requirements from the New Zealand Department of Housing and Building were to blame.
‘‘Most of the problems are outside of LE's control, so I don't want to be overly critical of them,'' he said.
