Carl Taylor: Combined Building Supplies Co-Op CEO on the decreasing number of new home consents

Consents keep dropping but the energy in the building sector may be beginning to turn. 

Stats NZ figures show new home consents fell 3.8% in the year to May and plunged 8.6% for multi-unit dwellings. 

Stats NZ says it's levelling off, but NZIER's latest Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion shows only 3% of building firms expect conditions to improve, down from 6% three months ago. 

But Combined Building Supplies Co-Op CEO Carl Taylor told Mike Hosking that building consent data is only a small part of the industry, and as a whole, it’s starting to feel better across the board. 

He says that some stats are normally three or four months behind, and instead they track what their members are spending across their merchants, which has seen a 10% increase on the previous month.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Things in our construction sector continue to be hard yards.
We got stats New Zealand data new home consent figures
are down three point eight percent year on year, second
lowest since twenty eighteen. Carl Taylor is the CEO of
Combined Building Supplies co op and as well as Carl,
Very good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
To you, Yes, good morning, mind.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Is this all over the place? Domestic commercial apartment standalone?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
The lot I think you've got to remember the building
concent data only makes us a small part of our industry.
So it does appear to be across the sector, but
it is starting to feel a lot better out there.
We're reporting our guys spending a lot more money. Good,
but it is certainly feeling better than vibes better.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
So some of these stats are in the rearview mirror,
as they say.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's normally three or four months behind. So what we is.
We tracked concrete volumes and what our members are actually
spending across our merchants. Last month is one of our
major merchants, we reported a ten percent increase in spend
just from the month prior. It's made up off the
guys you know, building decks and showers and bathrooms as
a post of building consent work. What we are seeing though,

(01:07):
is some of our rural members, so some of our
dairy farmer members, believe it or not, starting to spend
money on their fixed as sets as well, you know,
doing up their bathrooms, doing up there properties as well.
So I think that's pretty positive for the sector good.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
So this would this be part of the interest rates
are coming down, there's more money in your pocket and
you go out and spend it. This so called recovery
We've been spending the whole year on so far thinking
about yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah they are, they're they start to open up their
wallets and spend their money. Again, the vibe off the
sector is feeling better, people more positive. We're reporting people
or some of our members doing more quotes. So the
activity is certainly starting to speed up. And I'm pretty
excited for the next twelve months, that's for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
So you would argue, just just putting your finger into
the wind, that things are turning and by the end
of the year we might have some good news to
genuinely talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Well, don't get me wrong, it's still very tough out there,
this lot of pain, but again, the ViBe's good and
I'm really excited for what the next twelve months see
sub sector. It is starting to look ready positive for
the next.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Twelve fantastic well done, Cal Congratulations for coming on the program,
giving you something to cheeron. Carl Taylor, who's the CEO
that can buy a building supplies co.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Op For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live
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