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Speaker 1: Signs of a gradual turnaround in the building sector. New

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Speaker 1: stats and Z figures out today. They show new home

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Speaker 1: building consents down seven point two percent annually to January,

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Speaker 1: but eleven percent more homes were concented that month compared

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Speaker 1: to the year before. Brad Olson's the infometric CEO. He's

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Speaker 1: with us Hi Brad good evening. So what are we

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Speaker 1: making of this?

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Speaker 2: Well, look, I think the fact that you're seeing on

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Speaker 2: a sort of looking at the January month compared to

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Speaker 2: where it was a year ago, you've seeing a bit

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Speaker 2: of a tick up. There's definitely a bit of a

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Speaker 2: shift coming through, and it reinforces our view looking through

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Speaker 2: in these figures that actually there's effectively a bit of

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Speaker 2: a stabilization starting to come through. Yes, overall over the

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Speaker 2: last twelve months the number of consents are lower than

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Speaker 2: the twelve months before that, but that's because we had

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Speaker 2: seen sort of such a big pullback, but realistically down

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Speaker 2: seven point two on the annual basis over the last

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Speaker 2: twelve months. At one point it was down something like

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Speaker 2: twenty five percent. So we're starting to see that shift

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Speaker 2: gradually emerging. What I think was int thing when we

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Speaker 2: dug through into the numbers was the fact that you've

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Speaker 2: got quite a strong drive in recent times coming through

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Speaker 2: from Canterbury and Otago, some of the biggest contributions from

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Speaker 2: those areas, and also a bit of a notch upwards

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Speaker 2: in townhouse consent. So again, look, the numbers are still

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Speaker 2: in a more challenging spot. But after the construction's gone

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Speaker 2: from what fifty one thousand consents going back a couple

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Speaker 2: of years now we're thinking things stabilize more around the

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Speaker 2: thirty three to thirty five thousand marks, so down but

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Speaker 2: also not out interesting.

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Speaker 1: That the average floor area for a standalone house was

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Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy six square meters. That's down from

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Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty three the year before and the

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Speaker 1: lowest for any year into January since nineteen ninety four.

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Speaker 1: Is that part of the townhouse thing?

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Speaker 2: No, I mean those were the standalone figures themselves. So

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Speaker 2: you know that's a that's a that's a detached dwelling,

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Speaker 2: right if you will. But you're right, I mean, look

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Speaker 2: at it. It's notable that those that effectively your house

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Speaker 2: areas becoming smaller. Maybe we've all got to the Marie

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Speaker 2: condo and now we can sort of exist with a

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Speaker 2: small amount of space realistically, of course, it's actually because

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Speaker 2: people have been paying so much for houses that we

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Speaker 2: are looking for those sort of smaller options. And I

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Speaker 2: think it's also interesting like building consents in the size

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Speaker 2: of the floor area often dictates or is dictated by

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Speaker 2: what people are looking to buy. Now. Yes, people might

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Speaker 2: be feeling forced to buy smaller and build smaller because

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Speaker 2: of the financial restraints, but it also suggests that, you know,

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Speaker 2: because we have gotten more used to some of the

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Speaker 2: denser dwelling in townhouses and apartments, obviously there's a bit

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Speaker 2: of a shift where kiwis are able to make that

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Speaker 2: work a bit better and be a bit more affordable

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Speaker 2: than before. So definitely a bit of a shift coming

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Speaker 2: through there. In terms of the land size. People are

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Speaker 2: going to have to get pretty good at where they

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Speaker 2: store stuff.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's one of the troubles that I have at

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Speaker 1: my place because our place is tiny. But the thing

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Speaker 1: is you do get used to it. And also not

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Speaker 1: having a big backyard. I think everybody wants a big backyard,

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Speaker 1: but then once you live without one, you kind of

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Speaker 1: realize you can without it.

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Speaker 2: Well, until you've got a lawn and trees that have

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Speaker 2: got to be looked after a ride. You know, it's

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Speaker 2: great in summer and then it sort of becomes a

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Speaker 2: bit unkempt and hard to look after. I think as well,

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Speaker 2: when it comes to space, the more space you have,

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Speaker 2: the more space you can fill up. Like I feel

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Speaker 2: like your collection of clutter can sometimes grow to fill

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Speaker 2: whatever you've got. Now. Like I say, I do think

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Speaker 2: that actually the driving force behind this is more around

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Speaker 2: affordability and what kiwis are able to pay when it

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Speaker 2: comes to housing, and so that's obviously a challenge. But

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Speaker 2: I do think as well it reflects the fact that

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Speaker 2: over time we have seen a real shift in how

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Speaker 2: Kewis are living. I mean the fact that you know,

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Speaker 2: people are buying in different groups. It's not just sort

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Speaker 2: of a couple anymore. You know that there's different sort

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Speaker 2: of formations of who's buying a house, what people need

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Speaker 2: in them. The fact that you sort of you don't

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Speaker 2: necessarily need a spare bedroom anymore, you need an office

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Speaker 2: space that maybe has a pull out couch for when

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Speaker 2: mates come over. Like the entire way that New Zealander

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Speaker 2: is a living is shifting, and I think that's what

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Speaker 2: these numbers are reflecting as.

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Speaker 1: Well interesting South Brad, Thank you for that. Brad Olsen,

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Speaker 1: who's the informatric CEO. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

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