Ian Mckie from Naylor Love gave us an interesting insight to the Dunedin construction market. This was the commercial market not the residential or infrastructure.  The constantly changing skyline of Dunedin would indicate there is a lot of action in the market at present.  Ian said  There has been a promised building boom which will be government and in Dunedin two big ticket items the hospital and university are now underway. While this maybe exciting for the public who see  new buildings going up those in the industry live in a reality we don’t see.  The intensity to keep these projects on target and time is immense. The money involved is in the many millions and results are demanded.

There were a few issues and Covid has just complicated them  Construction cannot operate in level 3.  Level 2 is doable but 1 is better.  Auckland in level 3 has slowed many building products from getting round the rest of New Zealand but it seems the current shortage of wood is being resolved(although  residential and DIYers were more affected).  Other imports are also very slow getting through to the building industry.  There is a huge manpower shortage as Christchurch with their city rebuild is  engaging a lot of  the skilled labour force. If we do manage to get people down here to work they need somewhere to stay and Dunedin has  an acute shortage of houses The demand is high, which leads to increased costs and we were given the chilling concept  that increased prices can stall a project. We thank Ian for an informative presentation allowing us to see the inside of the construction industry and the issues it faces.