right numbers. Toby Beaglehole, BCITO CEO
IN THE MEDIA —
NZCB in the news
Annie Hill Annie Hill
NZ Certified Builders appoints new board members N
ZCertified Builders Association (NZCB) has announced the appointment of Ian Chamberlain as its new board chairman. Two new independent directors have also been appointed to the NZCB board. Chamberlain, who has been a builder for more than 37 years, has stepped up to the role of chairman from being vicechairman over the past year. The two new independent directors are former Ministry of Housing and Department of Building and Housing chief executive and now professional director Katrina Bach, and chartered accountant and financial advisory consultant
Andree Atkinson. Chief executive Grant Florence said the association was delighted to welcome the two new independent directors,who each brought specific expertise and an important external perspective. “Andree’s financial expertise will be an asset around the board table, particularly in the context of our continued membership growth. “Katrina brings a unique and valuable perspective as we navigate and best represent our members’ interests during a period of unprecedented regulatory change.” Atkinson is the advisory director in Atkinson Consulting Ltd and a member of Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand.
She has had significant experience on client advisory boards and not-for profit boards, and is chairwoman of the Youthtown Foundation and North Shore Events Centre Boards. Bach was chief executive of the Department of Building and Housing for nearly a decade before its merger with the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment in 2012 and chief executive of the Ministry of Housing. A member of the Institute of Directors, Bach is a board member of CCSDisability Action and has held board and chairperson roles for several Crown entities. The new appointments follow
Ian Chamberlain is NZCB's new Ian Chamberlain is NZCB's new Ian Chamberlain board chairman.is NZCB's new Ian Chamberlain is NZCB's new board chairman.
former NZCB chairman Kevin Sceats’ completion of his term as independent director. Sceats remains chair of the Halo Guarantees Ltd Board, which oversees NZCB’s Halo 10-Year Residential Guarantee. BOP Times, Tauranga 21 August 2021
Just how long does it take to build a home in NZ? by Diana Clement
B
uying a new home has many benefits for homeowners and investors. They take time to build, however. Many factors affect the build time. A single-level standalone home on a greenfields site is a very different build proposition to a 200 apartment complex, for example. Construction time is easy to predict, says Grant Florence, chief executive of the New Zealand Certified Builders association. The build of a standalone home on a section should take about 20 to 24 weeks. John Tookey, professor of Construction Management at AUT, concurs. Homes built that fast are mostly likely to be in suburbs where developers have a stream of consents going through council and have construction teams in and around site already, says Tookey. A terrace development should take around nine months to complete while an apartment block could take a year or two. By way of example, Ockham Residential’s most recent development, the three-building, 95unit Kōkihi complex in Auckland’s Waterview, broke dirt in March 2020, four days before the first lockdown, and received its code of compliance certificate in June this year – that’s 15 months later but still four months ahead of schedule. Each development has its own
delays in the supply chain. • Site preparation:Will your site need quirks. Kōkihi had extra engineering complex work on the land, drainage, challenges, thanks to its proximity to • Council consent: Consenting PMCA licensed copy. You may not further copy, reproduce, record, retransmit, sell, publish, distribute, sha foundations, and earthworks before the Waterview Tunnel. issues often cause delays to building the prior written copy. consent of may the Print Media copy, Copyright Agency. Phone +64-09-306 1657 or email info@pmc the record, build canretransmit, start? Steep, awkward PMCA You sell, publish, distribute, sha projects. The not best-further case scenarioreproduce, is It’s what happens before thelicensed first sites take longer to build on.1657 If or email info@pmc that your consent turnedCopyright around in Agency. spade hits the ground canwritten make consent thethat prior of the PrintisMedia Phone +64-09-306 you’re rebuilding on a site where a 20 working days, says Tookey. Make build times drag on, says Florence. previous house stood, expect to run sure you dot all your Is and Ts before That’s largely to do with developers into problems such as the need for you lodge your initial application. needing to make sufficient pre-sales additional ground reinforcing or new Every time there is a request for more to get their finance, planning and retaining walls, says Tookey. information from the council, the council consents. clock resets. If your plans change and Some of the factors include: Everyone has heard of you need to amend the consent after it • Pre-sales: Your build may not even a build that seemed to stretch has been granted, the council can add start until the developer has pre-sold on forever. another 20 days to the process. Since a certain number of units. Lenders 2011 the number of housing consents • Time of the year: The weather may require developers to make a certain has grown year on year on average affect your build. Ones taking place number of pre-sales before providing by 13 per cent a year, says Tookey. during winter usually take longer finance. That can take months. Councils have not increased staffing than the summer as bad weather • Design complexity: A simple design to match, which means they’re trying can force tradies offsite or indoors. will be faster to build than a complex to eke more consents out of the same Even the holidays can slow the one, says Florence. Likewise, number of employees. build down. Tradies take holidays managing the build yourself can slow too, especially over December • Height of the building: It takes things down, he says. and January. If you’re lucky, your longer to build a 10-storey apartment • Availability of builders: New developer and builder will be well building than a two- or three-storey Zealand’s skills shortage has been down the track of sales, consents terrace, or a standalone home on a exacerbated by the pandemic. greenfields site. Apartment buildings and even possibly construction by The country is short of around the time you sign the sale-andneed cranes and a huge amount 40,000 tradies, which means many purchase agreement. This will of structural work. Most terrace construction companies can’t build as reduce the time until you can move homes are more than one-storey fast as they’d like to, says Florence. in. The fastest and least complex high and have adjoining walls with • Supply chain issues: Builders often way to buy a new home is to find a neighbouring houses. Typically, have difficulty buying materials. “turnkey” property that is already the entire block will be built at New Zealand is a long way from built that you can simply buy, turn once, not just one terrace at a time. most of the rest of the world and the key in the lock and move into. This extends the build time, says is a small market. That, combined Florence. New Zealand Herald, Auckland with the pandemic, has created long 18 October 2021
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