December 2024 Building Work Value Report Released

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 2024 quarter:

• the seasonally adjusted total building volume fell 4.4 percent compared with the September 2024 quarter - residential fell 4.9 percent, and non-residential fell 3.1 percent
• total building value was $8.3 billion, down 12 percent from the December 2023 quarter.

Statistics remain provisional for the latest three quarters and are updated each quarter.

For a summary of the latest data updates, see 'Value of building work put in place: December 2024 quarter - updates to previously published statistics' under Download data.

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 0.3 percent in the December 2024 quarter, while non-residential prices rose 0.4 percent (as measured by the capital goods price index).

The total seasonally adjusted building volume fell 4.4 percent compared with the September 2024 quarter. Residential building volume fell 4.9 percent, and non-residential fell 3.1 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 $8.3 billion in the December 2024 quarter, down 12 percent from the December 2023 quarter.

Within this, residential building work was down 14 percent to $5.0 billion, and non-residential work was down 7.1 percent to $3.2 billion.

By region, the actual value of total building work in the December 2024 quarter compared with the December 2023 quarter, was:

• $3.3 billion in Auckland (down 13 percent)
• $697 million in Waikato (down 19 percent)
• $655 million in Wellington (down 19 percent)
• $1.4 billion in the rest of the North Island (down 6.8 percent)
• $1.3 billion in Canterbury (down 9.8 percent)
• $956 million in the rest of the South Island (down 1.4 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 2024 were:

• offices, administration, and public transport buildings at $2.3 billion (up 7.5 percent compared with the year ended December 2023)
• hospitals, nursing homes and health buildings at $1.9 billion (up 19 percent)
• factories and industrial buildings at $1.8 billion (up 8.5 percent)
• education buildings at $1.7 billion (down 20 percent).

Statistics for the March 2024 quarter onwards updated

Statistics for the March 2024 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

Mark Darbyshire
04 931 4600
[email protected]

ISSN 1178-0371

Next release

Value of building work put in place: March 2025 quarter will be released on 5 June 2025.