Construction

For years, construction firms have built around a moving political target. Consenting rules, building standards and housing settings swung with each change of government, and builders, developers and subcontractors absorbed the cost of the uncertainty. The coalition Government is now betting that its overhaul of the planning and consenting system can end that, and at […]

Wellington faces the biggest shake-up to its earthquake rules in a decade, and it lands squarely on the capital’s builders, engineers and building owners. The Building (Earthquake-prone Building System Reform) Amendment Bill is expected to pass before the 2026 election, rewriting how New Zealand handles earthquake-prone buildings. The headline change is time. Councils will be […]

Dunedin’s property market outperforms expectations with numbers catching people off-guard. Fresh data puts the city’s home values up 3.3% over the last year, driven in part by a recovering student population. Christchurch, long seen as the affordable alternative to Auckland and Wellington, has now been overtaken, with its median sale price edging above Dunedin’s for […]

The recent magnitude 6.3 earthquake near Te Anau, and the tsunami warning that briefly followed, were a reminder that New Zealand’s biggest seismic risks don’t always stay where they’re expected. Resilience is no longer just about compliance or retrofitting after the fact, but about how buildings and infrastructure are conceived from the outset. That shift […]

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 […]

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 […]