New home consent figures out from Stats NZ show the building sector clawing back some ground, with 39,737 new homes consented in the year ended May 2026, up 19% on the previous year. It’s the first annual increase after three consecutive years of May declines, though volumes remain below the 2022 peak. Multi-unit builds accounted […]

Open up a roof or strip a cladding and you have made a deliberate decision to expose the structure and everything inside it to the weather. The question is what you put back over it while the work runs. Temporary encapsulation — heat-shrunk reinforced polyethylene tensioned over a scaffold — has moved from a specialist […]

The 2degrees Shaping Business 2026 Report finds construction among the most upbeat sectors in the country — but the firms doing well are the ones lifting productivity, not waiting for a rebound After a bruising few years marked by project delays, rising costs and broader economic uncertainty, the construction sector is showing more confidence than […]

Pacifecon’s latest Market Watch report explores New Zealand’s private sector, alongside general information on projects around the country. This is part one of three looking at projects for the private, central government and council sectors. We also take a look at how the market is trending, letting you know what activity is happening and when. […]

Heavy rain turns a building site into two problems at once. While the downpour is on, the question is where your dirty water is going. Once it clears, the question is whether the site is safe to walk back onto. Both sit with the person in control of the work, and both are easier to […]

Sustainable Engineering director Jason Quinn says New Zealand doesn’t have a building science problem, but a construction execution one Jason Quinn spent about a decade at NASA working in propulsion and combustion physics. Seeking change, he took a year off in New Zealand, fell in love with the country, and never left. He soon became […]