Construction

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 […]

Years spent gaming may be giving some young New Zealanders an unexpected head start in the modern trades, as automation, robotics and digital technology transform traditional workplaces. Industry training organisation Competenz has coined the term Joystick Trades after hearing the same story from apprentices across the more than 30 sectors it supports – young people […]

A Martinborough home set in an olive grove and a builder’s own home on a steep Roseneath site took the top awards in this year’s Master Builders House of the Year competition for Wellington and Wairarapa. Nine homes won Gold, from Wellington’s harbour hills to the Kāpiti Coast and the Wairarapa, and four of them […]

It’s satisfying to stand back from a finished job knowing you did it yourself. It might be a rebuilt deck, a repainted fence or a tiled splashback that turned out better than expected. New Zealanders have built something of a national identity around this instinct. Give it a go, work it out, save the call-out […]