NZ’s homebuilders sized up
G.J. Gardner is New Zealand’s busiest company amid fall in building consents
Franchised group G.J. Gardner is New Zealand’s busiest business for new housing, putting up 1462 residences in the July year worth more than $531 million, data from BCI New Zealand shows.
It built more than double the number of new dwellings of its nearest rival, Mike Greer Homes, which built 750 new places worth $214.2m in the July year.
G.J. Gardner’s average new dwelling cost $363,790 and was an average 190sq m. Its business equates to 5.1 per cent of the New Zealand newhousing build by dollar value, BCI’s data showed. Mike Greer’s average house size was 163sq m and its average price was $285,612.
Grant Porteous, managing director of Deacon Holdings which is the master franchise holder for more than 20 G.J. Gardner building franchises, said he and wife Ellie Porteous never set out to have New Zealand’s biggest house builder.
But its size gave the business considerable power, the ability to negotiate prices with suppliers and “pulling” weight with tradespeople in the midst of high housing demand and a severe construction-sector skills shortage.
“We give them continuity of work and they can build their business based on ours. Plus we pay them every seven days,” Porteous said of the contractors, telling how that engendered loyalty among skilled tradespeople and helped those other businesses expand.
“We’ve built more than 14,000 homes in New Zealand. No client home has never been unfinished so consumer confidence and support is justified. We have been New Zealand’s number one builder for close to two decades,” he said.
The vision was to have every customer recommend the business to their closest friend and Porteous said 96.7 per cent of customers would do so “even in this hectic market”.
Registered Master Builders chief executive David Kelly said collaboration and innovation were important for the industry.
“The recent all-of-industry Constructive Forum focused on how we can work better together to deliver the quality and scale of building New Zealand needs today and for its future,” Kelly said, noting how Auckland’s Unitary Plan envisaged 400,000 new houses for Auckland by 2030. Statistics NZ data showed applications to build new houses dropped 0.7 per cent last month due to fewer smaller places being planned. The seasonally adjusted number of new homes consented fell 0.7 per cent in July after a 1.3 per cent fall in June. “July’s fall was driven by the number of consented apartments, townhouses and retirement units which fluctuates from month to month,” said construction statistics manager Melissa McKenzie.
The seasonally adjusted number of stand-alone houses consented rose 8.5 per cent, more than reversing a 4 per cent fall in June.
The number of new residences of all types consented was 2762, made up of 1900 houses (up 7.9 per cent from July 2016), 367 apartments (down 14 per cent), 350 townhouses, flats, and units (down 20 per cent) and 145 retirement village units (down 23 per cent).
Auckland suffered the largest consent drop: 313 fewer new homes were consented here last month compared to July last year. The fall was driven by decreases in the volatile apartment and townhouse categories, Statistics NZ said.
Auckland’s numbers are quite volatile because nearly half the homes consented are in multi-unit projects. On average, more than 800 new homes are consented in Auckland a month. In the year ended July, 30,404 new homes were consented nationally, including 10,051 in Auckland.