Leading house builder retains No 1 spot
G.J. Gardner holds firm although total build number down
G.J. Gardner Homes remains New Zealand’s busiest house-building business, although its annual output has fallen 49 per cent since 2021, according to a comparison of figures released by specialists BCI.
BCI’S national study of housebuilding businesses is sold to its clients and is not available to the public. However, New Zealand country manager Ben Hurrell supplied the Herald with the latest results.
The Herald compared data from when the house-sale market peaked around October 2021 to the March 2024 year to show the contrast. BCI does not do that, instead issuing monthly updates via rolling annualised data in its What’s On Report.
The busiest residential builder, G. J. Gardner, built 824 homes in the March year, almost half its 1643 output in the October 2021 year. Its joint managing director, Grant Porteous, said he and wife Ellie were not disappointed with completions because performance remained strong “in such a declining and challenging market”.
The business was different to the top five or 10 on the BCI report, Porteous said.
“Every permit shown on the BCI report represents a sale and signed contract with a client who has specifically chosen us to build their home.
It’s not in our DNA to chase volume. Accordingly, we do not speculate in the market.
“We won’t build low-quality homes with little living quality when asked and, by building to contract, we do not need external investor funds or bank funding to buy tracts of land and build spec homes.
“We do not live on the vagaries of the unpredictable building market nor have investors chasing us for their returns, hence we continue to dominate the New Zealand industry by over three times the next builder in revenue, purely by customer choice, for well over 25 years now.”
Statsnz data shows national building consent applications continue to fall but Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced stimulatory moves in April. Consents were issued for 36,276 new homes in the February year, down 25 per cent annually.
Wellington numbers fell 40 per cent annually, Waikato 28 per cent, Auckland 27 per cent and Canterbury 21 per cent.
Latest BCI data shows Fletcher Residential is the second-busiest builder, increasing output from 548 new homes in the October 2021 year to 573 in the March 2024 year, focused particularly on Auckland, developing the former Winston quarry in Three Kings and many other sites.
Signature Homes is the fourth busiest. Executive director Gavin Hunt said: “The numbers aren’t quite right, because we do a lot of businessto-business sales these days and they don’t show up in the figures under our name.
“For the year to March, we unconditionally sold 451 units, so still a good year for us in the context of the market, which is definitely tough. But we’re only down 16 per cent in volume and 14 per cent in dollars,” he said, comparing the March 2023 year to the March 2024 year.
Many businesses aspire to be New Zealand’s biggest house-builders.
Williams Corporation co-owner Matthew Horncastle told the Herald in 2022: “We definitely want to push forward towards that No. 1 position.”
Yet the company has gone in the opposite direction lately, according to BCI’S figures.
The Christchurch-headquartered business was the second busiest behind G.J. Gardner in the October 2021 year. Its completions have since fallen by 79 per cent. Williams built 761 homes in the October 2021 year but was in 11th place by the end of March this year, with 157 homes completed annually, BCI data showed.
Auckland-headquartered Du Val, which hopes to be eventually building 1000 homes a year, rose to 32nd place in the March year, building 58, up from 53rd place in the October 2021 year.
Ockham Residential was ranked 19th in the October 2021 year when it had built 149 homes or apartments, valued at $34m. The business, headed by Mark Todd, does not appear on the latest BCI survey.
Hurrell said this was because Ockham had not submitted any consent data in the past year for apartment projects. However, Todd told the Herald last week that the business had completed 481 units in that period.
The real standout from the survey is Takanini-headquartered tiny homes transportable builder Houseme, which went from completing 117 homes in the October 2021 year, when it was ranked 21st, to 285 homes in the year to March this year, ranking it fifth.
Demand was particularly strong from older people, who were renting later in life but still had access to land, often via family, and could afford a Houseme place starting at only $49,500. Houseme appeared on the Deloitte Fast 50 for the second consecutive year. — NZ Herald