Business View Oceania | January 2020

19 20 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA JANUARY 2020 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA JANUARY 2020 NEW ZEALAND CERT I F I ED BUI LDERS (NZCB) industry has is that it’s still struggling with slow productivity. Building is currently more driven by the actions of the local councils who undertake all the consenting and inspection and slow the inventory down. That’s an issue that needs to be addressed.” BVO: What are the most important points people should know about NZCB? Florence: “The number one thing is membership criteria. We are an organisation dedicated to improving the standards of the industry. That’s reflected by the fact that we have a unique membership criteria. We have introduced other tools, such as Halo, to support the betterment of the industry. And we have a commitment to each one of our members. Those are the three planks that people should understand about NZCB and we look forward to welcoming more builders to join our growing association.” BVO: What changes do you anticipate for the future of the industry? Florence: “New Zealand is a small market and there’s been a lot of entry into the country of prefabrication and other types of technologies like that. And that actually gained momentum when the government had their earlier ‘Kiwi build 100,000 houses over a 10-year target’. So prefabrication was seen as a way of achieving that. Obviously, that target has failed miserably and they’ve now backed off that policy. So there are some activities going on for prefabrication but it will never be significant in the overall market. “Other challenges that are coming at us: the government is having another go-round of regulation change around building acts, which will hopefully better the building system but we’ll wait and see. There are always changes that are happening but they take some time to work through. I think the biggest challenge the