Malcolm Fleming: NZ Certified Builders CEO on the rise in construction business liquidations

2026 has been a rough year for New Zealand's construction sector, with multiple businesses going bust in January alone.

Reports show there were 22 applications to put building or property related companies into liquidation over the 7 days from January 20 to January 27.

NZ Certified Builders CEO Malcolm Fleming says this reflects the tough conditions that have impacted the market over the last two years.

"Any liquidation is a bad news story, it's devastating for the builder, the homeowner, the sub-trades and supplier."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
It's a bit of a hammer blow for the construction industry.
The year is not off to a great start. More
than twenty building and property related businesses have gone bust
in just a seven day stretch. Malcolm Fleming is the
chief executive of Certified Builders and is with us now
Evening Malcolm, Good.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Evening, Heather, Thanks for having me on Jella.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Twenty two and seven days? Does seem like a lot?

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Is it?

Speaker 3 (00:37):
As much as it seems, It doesn't feel like that.
If I think about these on Certified Billbers, we have
twenty three hundred members. Typically in a year we see
about six liquidations across the year. Last year was twenty one,
and that really is an indication of how challenging the
last two years have been for the industry. So far

(00:59):
this year we've seen the one are there members going
to liquidation? And any liquidation, Heather, is a bad news story.
It's devastating for the builder, the homeowner, the sub trades
and supply and obviously you'd like to see very few
of those numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
If any at all, do you think, I mean, obviously
we've been through the tough patch. Do you think if
they're still sticking around right now times are getting better
or is it still a bit of a grind.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Like that We're still seeing liquidations through into what really
feels like the start of an economic recovery. That was
still seeing them is not unusual. There'll be building firms
have taken on low margin projects or projects that they
really just shouldn't have taken on just to get through,
to keep their staff, to keep the wheels moving, and

(01:47):
some of them to stay in business over this very
terrible time. This the last two years, we've taken on
debt levels to stay afloat and the belief that things
would turn around. And certainly this isn't an indictment that
went on diament an example that they're still flowing on through.
They haven't been on the hang on long enough for

(02:08):
the recovery that really is starting to feel as underway.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
Now, when do you reckon we're going to start spending
on building?

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Well, I'm starting to see that builders are starting to
get themselves thinking about growth. And there's a couple of
points of data can point to last week's seep darket data,
for example, talked about a large spike in construction jobs
being advertised. But if I look close to the Home

(02:39):
and Certified Builder's own data across the month of January,
we're up fifty percent on our members downloading employment contracts,
which is one of the membership befods, and that's indicating well,
good proxy that that's it's going to feel comfortable about
expanding their business because they have a work pipeline of

(03:02):
work starting to build up.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Malcolm, it's good to talk to you. Thank you for
running us through at Malcolm Flemming and some good news
their Certified Builder's Chief executive.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
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