article - '''Huge wave' of building work on way"

[Alistair]

Let's hope this does increase supply while not skimping on quality. Housing booms and quality don't always go hand-in- hand.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11160395

[Fern49]

The above was foreseen because the Labour govt. did away away with apprenticeships, in all trades, some years ago. The National govt. has reintroduced them but there is a lot of catching up to do.

[Super_BQ]

The above was foreseen because the Labour govt. did away away with apprenticeships, in all trades, some years ago.

Not to mention in recent periods when Labour Party was in power, the NZ building authorities allowed the use of radical, untested, new building constructions which resulted in NZ's "Leaky House Syndrome".

Building quality is a subjective term and people have different expectations and levels of standards. In NZ I find there's too much emphasis on the finishing of the house (what people can see on the outside), and little detail to the actual construction (insides) of the building. Nevertheless, if a person where to build today vs build 5 years ago, I would say to the person that they're much better to build today (regardless of the building boom) because of recent changes in the building code (caused by the Chch earthquakes). I remember 10+ years ago a person in the city would have few visits by the building inspector throughout the whole house build but today, virtually every step in the build process has an inspection. It wasn't too long ago where installing fiber glass insulation was just simply throwing it in the walls. Now, inspectors want no visible gaps or highly compressed insulation in the walls and ceilings. Furthermore the way houses are build today, I much rather own a house with a slab concrete poured foundation than the older raised sub-floor on pile foundation.

The real question the article should address is can new houses be built more affordable? Can the NZ gov't go on to the program of building houses (like in the "State Houses" era) by cutting the profit out on the building materials (ie sourcing materials direct from the mill or import : which cuts out the profit from suppliers like Mitre 10, Bunnings, etc - and re-introduce apprentice schemes where workers are paid substantially less but highly managed - as in the days of the state houses era.

[Fern49]

It takes a disaster to bring about change, the cart before the horse attitude.