WELLINGTON, June 6 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand's volume of building work was 8.3 billion NZ dollars (5.14 billion U.S. dollars) in the March 2024 quarter, down 4 percent compared with the December 2023 quarter, with increasing construction costs, according to the statistics department Stats NZ on Thursday.
The volume of residential building work fell 4.8 percent to 5.2 billion NZ dollars (3.22 billion U.S. dollars) and non-residential building work fell 2.8 percent to 3 billion NZ dollars (1.86 billion U.S. dollars) over the same period, Stats NZ said.
"The total volume of building work in the March 2024 quarter was the lowest quarterly volume in the past two years," Stats NZ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said.
The volume estimates are seasonally adjusted which remove the effects of price changes and typical seasonal patterns.
The fall in building activity coincided with a 2.8 percent decrease in the retail sales volume of hardware and building supplies in the March 2024 quarter, Heslop said, adding that the fall in residential building activity reflects the decreasing number of building consents for new homes in the construction pipeline.
The annual number of homes consented peaked in the year ended May 2022 and has been decreasing since then, he said.
The value of building work put in place was 36 billion NZ dollars (22.31 billion U.S. dollars) in the year ended March 2024, up 3.8 percent from the year ended March 2023, statistics show.
Value estimates of building work put in place, in contrast to volume estimates, include changes to building costs over time, such as material and labor costs.
"The annual value of building work in the year ended March 2024 was up, but this also includes the increase in construction costs over this period," Heslop said.
In the past 12 months, residential construction costs increased by 3.9 percent and non-residential costs increased by 4.6 percent, he added. ■