Impacts of COVID-19 on new-home building projects

Around half of surveyed building projects for new homes in Auckland have reported a moderate to severe impact associated with COVID-19 in the March 2021 quarter, Stats NZ said today.

More than 4,500 builders, developers, and owners provided their perceptions of COVID-19's impact on building projects. Over 3,000 of the responses capture information about new buildings.

"Respondents of building projects for new homes in Auckland were more likely to report greater impacts from COVID-19 than the rest of the country, similar to previous quarters," construction statistics manager Michael Heslop said.

Supply pressures remain for new-home projects

Over two-thirds of respondents from new-home projects reported a COVID-19-related impact on the availability of materials and equipment. Respondents from similar projects outside of Auckland were less likely to report an impact on the availability of materials and equipment, but they were still more likely to report this compared with other impacts (for example, cashflow, costs, labour, or productivity).

Respondents from new-build residential projects in Auckland were also more likely to report impacts in multiple categories when compared with similar projects outside of Auckland.

"The perceived impact of COVID-19 on building projects may also be influenced by the high volume of building consents for new homes," Mr Heslop said.

"This is particularly the case in Auckland where there has been a big rise in consent numbers for new homes."

Auckland has been making up a larger proportion of all new homes consented since the late 2000s. In the year ended April 2021, the number of new homes consented in Auckland was 18,224 and accounted for nearly 43 percent of all homes consented nationally.

Auckland saw an increase of around 23 percent in the number of new homes consented between the year ended April 2020 and April 2021.

See Building consents issued: April 2021 for more information.