6 Mar 2013

Residential building up

7:10 pm on 6 March 2013

Residential building volumes have risen, driven by earthquake rebuilding in Canterbury and Auckland.

Official figures show the seasonally and inflation-adjusted value of residential work rose 0.7% to $978 million in the three months to December compared with the previous quarter.

Non-residential building work volumes rose 3%, led by commercial building.

In total, building volumes rose 1.8% and ANZ Bank senior economist Sharon Zollner said activity continues to improve.

"In terms of residential work put in place the volumes are still around a third below historical averages as a share of GDP, so there's clearly still a fair bit of upside there, however non-residential investment activity is now at about historical norms in that regard."

For the year, the value of total building work rose 8% to $190.8 billion.