WELLINGTON, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The volume of building work in New Zealand was 8.2 billion NZ dollars in the June 2024 quarter, down 0.2 percent compared with the March 2024 quarter, the lowest volume of building activity seen in a June quarter since the COVID-impacted June 2020 quarter, according to the statistics department Stats NZ on Friday.

The volume of residential building work fell 0.7 percent to 5.2 billion NZ dollars and non-residential building work fell 0.1 percent to 3 billion NZ dollars over the same period, Stats NZ construction and property statistics manager Michael Heslop said.

Annually, the value of building work was 36 billion NZ dollars in the year ended June 2024, down 0.1 percent from the year ended June 2023, Heslop said.

In the year ended June 2024, the value of residential building work was 23 billion NZ dollars, down 4.1 percent compared with the year ended June 2023. The value of non-residential building work was 13 billion NZ dollars, up 7.8 percent over the same period, he said.

In the 12 months to June 2024, residential construction costs increased by 3.6 percent and non-residential costs increased by 3.7 percent, statistics show.

The government has been working on a major shake-up of building products which will make it easier and more affordable to build in New Zealand.

A legislation was introduced on Thursday to improve access to a wider variety of quality building products from overseas, giving Kiwis more choice and injecting some competition into the market, said Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk.

"It is unacceptable that it is around 50 percent more expensive to build a standalone home in New Zealand than Australia," Penk said. (1 NZ dollar equals 0.62 U.S. dollar) Enditem

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