Construction

Most of the danger around an excavator isn’t in the cab. WorkSafe’s excavation safety guideline says most excavator-related deaths involve a person working near the machine rather than the driver. That’s the spotter, the pipelayer and the labourer with the shovel. Here’s what that guideline and WorkSafe’s other guidance expect of civil and earthmoving crews […]

Plumbers signing off their own work. Granny flats going up without a building consent. A new planning system to replace the Resource Management Act. More homes are being consented than a year ago, build costs have started climbing again and interest rates have turned upward. Here’s what has changed so far in 2026, what’s still […]

Six of the 10 roles with the fastest-growing job ads on SEEK are in engineering, construction or the trades. Geotechnical engineers top the list, with job ad volume up 137.5%. SEEK compared job ad volumes on its site for June to August 2026 with the same three months of 2025. The figures measure growth in […]

Oliver Wooles from the Auckland region has been named the 2026 Master Builders CARTERS Apprentice of the Year. Lachy Hughes from the Taranaki & Whanganui region came second. Dokyun (DK) Kim from the Central & Upper South Island region came third. Nine regional champions reached the national final from a field of 95 apprentices. Each […]

The cost of building a new house in New Zealand rose 1.7% in the September quarter, the fastest quarterly increase since late 2022. That’s the finding of Cotality’s Cordell Construction Cost Index (CCCI), released on 8 October. The quarterly rise picked up from increases of between 0.9% and 1.1% over the previous three quarters. Annual […]

Construction costs have edged higher again, even though the price of GIB and some other commonly used materials has come down. QV CostBuilder’s latest update shows trade rates rose by an average of 0.2% in September, with a wide spread of individual product movements pulling costs in different directions. GIB falls, other lines rise The […]