Construction costs continue to fluctuate across main centres
QV CostBuilder is Aotearoa New Zealand’s most comprehensive construction cost database.
In its latest construction cost update – just two months after its previous one – nearly 12,000 new material and labour prices have been applied to QV CostBuilder’s database of more than 60,000 rates in Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin.
This has produced almost 8,000 changes to its cost planning rates section since June, at an average rate of between -1.7% and +1.0%. There was more movement in the detailed rates section, with an average change of between -2.3% and +2.4%.
The biggest price increase since QV CostBuilder’s June update was for diesel, which increased by 16.6% due to the removal of the government’s fuel tax subsidy. However, the price of diesel is still 24.5% lower than the same time last year.
Meanwhile, the price of structural timber dipped by an average of 0.7% overall, with timber cladding/decking and reinforcing also reducing in cost by an average of 2.4%. However, the cost of some sizes and products in these categories have still increased since our last update.
Notable changes since the last QV CostBuilder update include:
Read the latest QV CostBuilder update notes here.
QV CostBuilder spokesperson Simon Petersen commented: “Powered by New Zealand's leading valuation and property services company, QV CostBuilder is Aotearoa’s most comprehensive subscription-based building cost platform. Now we’re bringing our subscribers more rates, more often, starting with this latest update.
“We still have another major construction cost update to come in Q4, which will show us whether the rate of construction cost inflation has continued to slow overall. In June, we reported that the average cost of building a home in the main centres had risen by 9.5% annually — less than half the rate of building cost inflation measured in the year prior.”
QV CostBuilder quantity surveyor Martin Bisset said at the time: “Though construction costs continue to rise, they have definitely slowed throughout the first six months of 2023. It looks as though they are starting to level out now, with the worst of the construction inflation boom now firmly behind us and strong demand for materials and labour continuing to ease across much of the country.”
However, Mr Bisset warned that there was still a great deal of uncertainty in the building industry and economy as a whole, making it difficult to predict exactly how costs will continue to evolve throughout the remainder of the year.
Visit QV CostBuilder at costbuilder.qv.co.nz.
