We all know that there are more buyers than sellers in the housing market at the moment. Build more houses – problem solved! Well, maybe not. New Zealand’s Building and Construction industries are at capacity, with many builders and industry specialists fully booked up to 12 months out. Even if they have capacity, many are being held up by supply chain issues.
We have been reading a bit on the news recently about these supply chain issues. Carter Holt Harvey has gone so far as to stop supplying structural timber to many of NZ’s beloved DIY stores…ouch! This has a significant impact on those of us who like doing it ourselves, and also on smaller building companies. Thankfully they’re not the only company supplying structural timber, but there is definitely an impact.
The epic tangle up in the Suez Canal a couple of weeks ago certainly didn’t help things, it may have been “only” 6 days in the end, but long delays are anticipated on many supplies. Many of the ships that were backed up behind the Ever Given backtracked and went the long way around the bottom of Africa, so those ships are now way behind schedule. An interesting fact – more than 99% of NZ’s imports and exports are shipped by sea. We will certainly experience repercussions on sea links with China and the rest of Asia. Add in slowed production and manufacturing due to Covid-19 lockdowns all around the world, and we have quite a set of hurdles!
Electricians are running out of cable; builders are struggling to get access to structural timber; heat pumps and insulation are in short supply and installers are struggling to get enough to fill the demand for landlords attempting to meet the healthy homes standards.
These are all challenges that need to be considered while New Zealand is pushing to construct the 80,000 houses that we are short.
If you are wanting to do your own renovations the key will be to plan well ahead and be aware of potential delays and increasing costs for materials and labour.