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New Zealand’s Building Costs Rise by 2.4%: Records Smallest Increase Since 2016New post

Low home demands caused by high interest rates and economic uncertainties have slowed the pace of house-building costs in New Zealand.Recent numbers by CoreLogic, a property information and analytics company, have reported a 2.4% annual increase in the nation’s construction costs – making it the smallest annual increase since the 12 months ending September 2016. Additionally, Q4 2023 recorded a 0.8% increase from the previous quarter....

New Zealand's Economy Expected to 'Bounce Back' Post-election: But Big Businesses Remain Struggling

Experts forecast that New Zealand's economy might see a post-election uplift, but it might mean little for big businesses struggling with cost-of-living effects. New Zealand is a nation affected by cost of living pressures this year, with many households cutting their spending on groceries and retail. This knock-on effect impacts many businesses as significant drops in retail spending have been recorded.   However, labour pressure costs are expected to eas...

Slow Growth Forecasted for New Zealand's Construction Market Due to Rising Costs of Labour, Materials, and Energy

The latest reports by ResearchAndMarkets.com have forecasted a slow growth for New Zealand's construction sector.  This forecast comes as a result of rising material, energy, and labour costs that have impacted the industry. Additionally, the continued tightening of monetary policy by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) will continue to impede the industry's growth. The report expects New Zealand's construction industry to grow by 3.6% in real terms in 2023 before rec...

Unemployment Rate at 3.9%: What Does The Labour Market Trends Tell Us?

New unemployment figures show New Zealand’s unemployment rate rose up to 3.9% in the September 2023 quarter – reaching the highest level since the June 2021 quarter. In line with the consensus of bank economists, the unemployment rate rose 0.3% from 3.6% in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, the labour force participation rate decreased slightly to 72% from 72.4% in the previous quarter. But what do these trends mean for businesses and employees in the months ahead? ...

INZ Pens Open Letter To Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon, proposes forum for infrastructure sector

Infrastructure New Zealand, the leading national infrastructure development and advocacy body, has written an open letter to Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon - prompting the government to get the country’s social and economic infrastructure ‘back on track.INZ’s Chair Tracey Ryan and Chief Executive Nick Leggett mention in the letter that the first order of priority is to hold a forum with the government, members of the infrastructure sector, and INZ. The association hopes the governm...

Looking Forwards: Why NZ’s New Home Builds Need to Better Incorporate Future-proof Design Elements

With the ever-increasing effects of climate change hitting our homes, there has never been a more crucial time to ensure that New Zealand’s new homes are being built with an eye to the future.While it’s true that some of the country’s new homes are being built with this notion of futureproofing in mind, many new home builds are failing to incorporate design and structural elements that will be suitable to face the effects caused by urban intensification and climate change.As our cities see...

The New Zealand Tax Podcast: Exploring Potential Tax Changes

In the dynamic world of taxes, this week brought a whirlwind of political events that left a lasting impact, including the appointment of a new Minister of Revenue, the Inland Revenue's innovative support for the construction industry, and the heated debate around removing GST from food items. ...

Insurance Council Says a Little over a Third of Claims Have So Far Been Paid Out for The Twin Weather Events Early This Year; Warns Some Claims Could Take Over a Year to Settle

According to the Insurance Council of New Zealand Te Kāhui Inihua o Aotearoa (ICNZ), just over a third of the estimated $3.18 billion in claims has been paid out. ICNZ had previously warned that some claims might take over a year to settle. The $3.18 billion was split evenly between the Auckland Anniversary Weekend flooding in late January and Cyclone Gabrielle in early February, with over 100,000 claims represented.ICNZ also reports that the general insurance sector in NZ had total claims wort...

Is NZ still known as a desirable destination for international migration? Stats say yes, despite overblown concerns.

Concerns that our reputation as an attractive destination for international migrants had been severely damaged in the last few years appear to have been exaggerated when you look at the actual numbers.In fact, New Zealand is currently experiencing a spike in population growth that surpasses global trends of population growth, thanks to a record high migration. The combination of new government policies and the sudden satisfaction of those waiting due to border closures has resulted in unpreceden...

Addressing the $210 Billion Infrastructure Deficit

New Zealand is facing a substantial infrastructure deficit, amounting to $210 billion, and the situation is getting more intense thanks to recent events like Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods. These two alone have incurred costs estimated between $9 billion and $14.6 billion.Communities across the country are grappling with a lack of basic infrastructure, from inadequate drinking water quality and overwhelmed stormwater drains to congested roads, unreliable public tra...

Cyclone Affected Roads To Bear Brunt After Rail Slip – Extent of Repairs Cannot be Underestimated

Every week hundreds of freight containers are transported between Auckland and Northland by train, but after a significant slip on the rail line near Helensville these containers will now need to be trucked to Northland despite those roads already being fragile.Due to the slip near Helensville, the primary railway freight line connecting has been deemed inoperable. The slip itself is significant and encompasses a huge area with 35,000 tonnes of earth blocking over 100m of the track."This is pret...

North Island Floods and Cyclone Tipped to Raise Insurance Premiums

Well over 12,000 claims have been received by the big three insurance companies IAG, Suncorp, and Tower – and as we all know more claims, increased need for pay-outs, and insurer bottom lines can mean a sharp increase in the premiums policy holders have to pay.IAG alone accounts for over seven thousand claims for major expenses like home damage, home and contents, vehicles, and business claims. They are definitely baring the brunt of their market shar with the next two largest – Suncorp and ...

North Island Floods and Cyclone Will Affect the Construction Downturn More Than The Economy

There is always concern for the long term economic outlook of cities and countries when hit by natural disasters, but overall New Zealand is looking pretty good to recover well in the long run.Despite keeping this positive attitude towards New Zealand’s economic outlook in mind, it cannot be denied that with repair work and clean up taking priority, it is going to be the building and construction industry that is affected the most.With delays being the major concern –in terms of repairs and ...

Fear and Lending: New Zealand’s 2023 Economic Outlook

At the most stable of times economics is a dark art, but with so many variables at play, few things are certain.Economists at ASB and Westpac predicted GDP growth of just 0.9 percent for the September-ending quarter, according to data released in the middle of December. It was estimated at 0.8 percent by the Reserve Bank, and BNZ came in higher than the rest with what seemed like a ridiculously optimistic 1.3 percent.However, the retrospective figure was 2 percent, which was significantly higher...

Who Is Really Accountable for the Nation’s Unfixed Potholes?

Potholes probably aren't on your mind unless you're bouncing through one or swerving at the last minute to avoid one.Yet, they've recently been making national headlines for all the wrong reasons.Such as the woman who’s car got two flat tyres after hitting a pothole on a stretch of highway near Tauranga in October, leaving her and her toddler waiting for two hours in the rain and the dark until help arrived.National capitalized on this story and launched a "pothole of the week" campaign in the...

Special NZ Launches ‘Do Good, Do Well’ Investment Campaign

PR company Special New Zealand has launched a campaign to attract new investors and investment into New Zealand, on behalf of New Zealand’s Trade and Enterprise’s ‘Invest New Zealand’ scheme.The campaign is branded ‘Do Good, Do Well’, and it seeks to reinforce the message that businesses who do good for the planet and its people are rewarded fiscally. It aims to encourage foreign investors to identify the values-oriented businesses in New Zealand and to direct their investment there....

Economic Woes: The Effect NZ’s Low Literacy Rates May Have on the Nation’s Economy

Historically, New Zealand has always ranked highly in international comparisons of literacy and numeracy rates amongst school-aged children.But over the past decade or so, our national levels of literacy and numeracy are falling.This growing decline is a worrying trend that could well have a negative impact on the country’s economy in the not-so-distant future.Earlier this year The Education Hub published a research report that showed around 35.4 percent of teenagers aged 15 or younger are str...

Concerns Over Construction Sector Talent Loss After Immigration NZ Website Crash

There are fears that competing countries are attracting migrant worker talent as New Zealand’s visa process for drawing in migrant workers is lagging behind. With many now calling for an overhaul of New Zealand’s immigration settings.Following an error on the Immigration New Zealand (INZ) website which made it impossible to apply for a job check for three weeks. A construction sector labour-hiring company has laid a formal complaint with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (M...

New Zealand Small Businesses Struggle with Negative Cash Flow for a Third of Each Financial Year

The global small business platform, Xero, recently announced the release of a Xero Small Business Insights report ‘Crunch: Cash Flow Challenges Facing Small Businesses’. Which found that cash flow challenges are undermining the operations and growth of at least 90 percent of small businesses.In New Zealand, the average small business struggles with negative cash flow for a third of the year. With roughly 17 percent facing cash flow crunches, where monthly expenses exceed revenue, for more th...

The Effect of Mortgage Rates Rise Is Still To Come

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) Adrian Orr last week stated that the effect of rising mortgage rates is still to be fully felt across the wider economy.In a statement to the Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee, Orr said that it can take anywhere between 18 months and two-plus years for the RBNZ’s monetary policy decisions to take effect and for the economy to shift accordingly.So, even though some mortgage holders will no doubt already be feeling the additio...

Building supplies and practices

Entering the property market is no easy feat. With the average New Zealand house price reaching as high as $1.35 million, it is hard to be a first-time buyer. Globally, New Zealand has one of the highest housing prices to income ratios, making it increasingly expensive to own a home. With this confronting issue present within the property market, the New Zealand government's commerce commission has launched an investigation into the cost of building supplies. The outcomes of this analysis c...

Do you drink milk with your coffee?

It’s no secret that we Kiwis love our coffee. New Zealand places among the top 20 countries worldwide regarding our coffee consumption rate. Coffee culture plays a significant role in our daily lives. However, many Kiwis are now doing a double-take when buying coffee. The great question is, ‘how did this become so expensive?’ Believe it or not, the issue concerning the cost of coffee is far greater than your local cafe raising the price to make a few extra dollars; coffee itself is at...

Westpac Data Says Households Paying Down Mortgages Increases By 2.2%

During 2021 the number of Westpac NZ home loan customers in a position to get ahead of their mortgage repayments has risen from 65.9% of customers, to 68.1%.While an increase was seen across the board, some regions outstripped their neighbouring home owners. With the overall average “months ahead” sits at 10.5 months, Wellington took the lead with 75.2% ahead on their mortgages by an average of $18,252 aka 19 months ahead. Auckland is home to the largest average loan size but even there, cus...

Are Covid and City Rail to Blame for Chinese Billionaire’s Delayed Plans? New Zealand’s Tallest Building on Hold.

The Shanghai business magnate, Furu Ding, has plans to construct New Zealand’s tallest building in Auckland. However, Ding has recently applied for – and been granted – a last minute extension to his building consent after he claimed the delays are due to Auckland’s city rail link and Covid complications.The billionaire owns significant portions of New Zealand land and commercial interests, as well as a chain of luxury and high end hotels located throughout China and Singapore.In 2017, t...

What does 2022 hold for New Zealand housing and interest rates – and the dollar?

The last twelve months has, to many, felt like spinning our wheels in regards to both the economic uncertainty as well as the extended Covid-19 lockdowns and ongoing complications of the pandemic.Despite this feeling of treading water, house prices have continued to rise and the official cash rate had increased for the first time in seven years which has - in combination with the emergence of inflation - impacted the borrowing rates.The NZD has been performing well against the AUD but this doesn...