Page 22 - HW June-July 2021

trade focus
For want of
A NAIL...
Consents remain high and intentions to build new homes solid. But are issues
of supply adding to the Kiwi builder’s worries? Steve Bohling finds out what the residential builders really think...
“FOR WANT OF a nail the shoe was lost. “For want of a shoe the horse was lost. “For want of a horse the rider was lost. “For want of a rider the battle was lost. “For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. “And all for the want of a nail.”
As the timber shortage has morphed and grown, and other products and materials have become scarcer, residential builders for the most part have seemingly just kept on keeping on, riding a wave of demand for new homes.
The better builders have more than managed – they have thrived, armed with business sense, decent systems and longer- range forecasting.
Many have also shown a willingness to adapt to changing circumstances, offering a less rigid range of options.
What about the “man and a van” operators?
I’ve been hearing about merchants “prioritising” who they supply. Equally I’ve had word of builders large and small stockpiling
products and being let us say “optimistic” about when they actually need their frame & truss order.
Is the gap between large and small builders growing – is there a growing gulf between the businesspeople in building and those who probably still prefer to just be “on the tools”?
I reached out to three of the top five group home builders and to two umbrella organisations representing smaller residential operators to find out...
FROM THE TOP OF THE HEAP
Starting with the largest group home builder, GJ Gardner MD, Grant Porteous, is pleased to report that they were wrong last year to forecast a drop from an average of around 1,500 new home builds a year to 900.
Instead, Grant is happy to confide that GJ Gardner is handily up on its annual average.
“The industry is bursting at the seams in nearly every market where there’s land available,” he says.
The market in most regions is going gangbusters, he says, except where there are land issues like in Rotorua, Taranaki, and Blenheim.
Land apart, although admitting that pressure is on with timber and fibre cement, product and materials supply issues have not thus far been much of a problem. Having said this, GJ Gardner has seen fit to lengthen its supplier/merchant order lead times to as much as 12 weeks in some cases.
“We’ve not looked to buy stuff and stack it away, like some builders have,” says Grant.
20 NZHJ | JUNE/JULY 2021
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