BIF NZ Newsletter

September 2026

Chief Executive's Report:

Julien Leys

Welcome to our September newsletter, and welcome to spring!

We are very excited to be launching a new industry awards programme: Best in Build. This has been in the works for a while and I'm so glad that we can finally share it with you all. With 20 awards categories, we will be recognising the diverse range of businesses and people that work in the industry and their contributions. We have some more announcements about the awards coming over the next few weeks, so we'll keep you in the loop on that. Visit the Best in Build website for more information.

We held our AGM last week which was a fantastic evening. It was great to hear from Hon Simon Watts, Minister of Building and Construction, and our keynote speaker, the brilliant Sam Stubbs of Simplicity who enlightened us about how the next 30 years will be one of the prosperous in New Zealand's history thanks to Kiwisaver funds being invested in housing and infrastructure.

We also farewelled Stephen Walker who has been with BIF NZ for 12 years as he resigns from the Board. Stephen was Deputy Chair of our BIF NZ Board and Simon Burden of BuildLink has now stepped into this role alongside David Deavoll. Jeremy Smith of New Zealand Steel replaces Stephen on the Building Research Advisory Committee (BRAC) as the representative from BIF NZ. The BIF NZ Board is very appreciative of Stephen's industry contributions and recognised this with a gift on the evening.

As we approach summer and daylight savings when the industry is expected to start to get busy again, isn't it great to see housing consents up again by 21% - let's hope this trend continues into the new year.

It's going to be a busy run into the last few months of the year. We will continue to keep you updated on events, issues, and industry news.

Ngā mihi nui,
Julien Leys
Chief Executive, Building Industry Federation of New Zealand

In this newsletter:

Industry News
Specified 2026
Top Tasks Survey
Forsyth Barr Building Sector Insights
Stats NZ: Annual number of home consents up

Industry News

14 August, Newsroom: Two decades of gains gone in four years as NZ civil construction growth stalls
20 August, The Spinoff: New fast-track fights: ‘Growth paying for growth’ v local backlash
26 August, BusinessDesk: Fletcher plasterboard case to test Commerce Commission’s resolve
26 August, RNZ: Steel & Tube posts $61m loss as auditor flags going-concern uncertainty
26 August, The Post: ‘Fast-track is working well’: Chris Bishop brushes off housing backlash
31 August, BusinessDesk: Aluminium industry warns of collapse as cheap imports flood in
31 August, BRANZ: NZS 3604 continues to set the standard
1 September, BusinessDesk: Cabinet orders major gas users to disclose contracts
1 September, NZIER: Cautious recovery resumes as fuel crisis eases
2 September, RBNZ: OCR increased by 25 basis points to 2.75%

Source: BusinessDesk

Specified 2026

Specified is New Zealand's premier conference tailored to suppliers to the building and construction industry. Run by our friends at EBOSS, it is being held this month on Thursday 17 September in Auckland. Final tickets are on sale now, so get in quick - check out the event here.

Top Tasks Survey

The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is undertaking research to improve the Building Performance website and is seeking feedback from users about their online experience.

The survey is voluntary, anonymous, and should take around 5 minutes to complete. Responses will be securely stored and used only for the purpose of this website research. Your feedback is greatly appreciated by MBIE.

Take the survey here.

Forsyth Barr Building Sector Insights

Forsyth Barr generously shares their insights from the building sector with us. Read about how New Zealand's consents are levelling out in their latest report here.

Source: Forsyth Barr

Stats NZ: Annual number of home consents up

There were 40,908 new homes consented in New Zealand in the year ended July 2026, up 21 percent compared with the year ended July 2025, according to figures released by Stats NZ yesterday. This is an increase of just over 7,000 homes from the 33,879 consented in the previous July year. Read more about annual number of homes consented here.

Meanwhile, in July 2026, the seasonally adjusted number of new dwellings consented fell 4.3 percent, after falling 3.7 percent in June 2026. Read more about building consents issued here.