December 2023 Quarter Sees High Value in Building Work

Value of building work statistics estimate the value and volume of work put in place on construction jobs in New Zealand.

Key facts

In the December 2023 quarter:

• the seasonally adjusted total building volume fell 0.1 percent compared with the September 2023 quarter - residential fell 2.4 percent, and non-residential rose 4.6 percent
• total building value was $9.5 billion, up 3.8 percent from the December 2022 quarter.

Statistics for the March 2023 quarter onwards were updated to reflect improved survey information.

Value of building work put in place: December 2023 quarter - updates to previously published statistics has more detail.

Statistics for the June 2023 quarter onwards will remain provisional and may be updated in a future release.

Methodology for value of building work put in place: June 2023 quarter has further detail.

Seasonally adjusted building activity volume

The seasonally adjusted building activity volume series removes the effects of typical seasonal patterns and changes to construction costs. Volumes are calculated at September 2022 quarter prices. Residential construction prices rose 0.8 percent in the December 2023 quarter, while non-residential prices rose 1.0 percent (as measured by the capital goods price index).

The total seasonally adjusted building volume fell 0.1 percent compared with the September 2023 quarter. Residential building volume fell 2.4 percent, and non-residential rose 4.6 percent.

Regional actual value of building work

In value terms (not adjusted for cost changes or seasonal effects), the actual value of building work was $9.5 billion in the December 2023 quarter, up 3.8 percent from the December 2022 quarter.

Within this, residential building work is down 1.3 percent to $6.1 billion, and non-residential work is up 14 percent to $3.4 billion.

By region, the actual value of total building work in the December 2023 quarter compared with the December 2022 quarter, was:

• $3.9 billion in Auckland (up 6.5 percent)
• $886 million in Waikato (down 4.8 percent)
• $805 million in Wellington (down 4.0 percent)
• $1.5 billion in the rest of the North Island (up 4.1 percent)
• $1.4 billion in Canterbury (up 9.6 percent)
• $978 million in the rest of the South Island (up 0.5 percent).

Actual value of building work on non-residential buildings

The non-residential building types with the most work put in place (by value) in the year ended December 2023 were:

• education buildings at $2.1 billion (rose 18 percent)
• offices, administration, and public transport buildings at $2.1 billion (rose 24 percent)
• storage buildings at $1.9 billion (rose 15 percent)
• factories and industrial buildings at $1.6 billion (rose 4.3 percent).

Statistics for the March 2023 quarter onwards updated

Statistics for the March 2023 quarter onwards were updated to reflect improved survey information. Data updates reflect:

• improved information from respondents in the full-coverage survey of high-value projects
• improved model adjustments (based on the survey of lower-value projects).

Methodology for value of building work put in place: June 2023 quarter has further detail.

More data

Use Infoshare for time-series data about building work put in place:

Subject category: Industry sectors
Survey name: Building activity survey - BAS
Related survey: Building consents - BLD

Definitions and metadata

Value of building work put in place - DataInfo+ provides the general methodology used from the December 2014 quarter estimates of the value of building work put in place, and related metadata.

Value of building work put in place concepts - DataInfo+ provides definitions of terms used from the December 2014 quarter.

Technical enquiries

Jeremy Aitken
03 964 8423
[email protected]

ISSN 1178-0371

Next release

Value of building work put in place: March 2024 quarter will be released on 6 June 2024.