Builders will fail to meet rising demand for houses: forecaster

The arrival of about 45,000 immigrants here over the next three years will lift the house-building sector, says business forecaster BIS Shrapnel.

It predicts 17,000 to 18,600 houses will be finished annually. However, BIS says this won't be enough to meet demand.

Official figures reported last week showed that 14,425 housing consents had been issued in the year to December, well down on the 31,423 houses at the peak during 2004.

Statistics NZ's latest figures showed the house-building sector slipping into a decline after a big recovery in the past few months. The number of housing consents issued during December fell 2.4 per cent compared with November but annually the number fell 23 per cent.

Consents were up since March but still much lower than about mid-2007.

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Posted: 9 Feb 2010

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