Julien Leys: Building Industry Federation CEO on the new legislation around importing building supplies from overseas

The Government's making changes aimed at bringing down the cost of building homes.  

It's introduced new legislation to make it easier to import building supplies from abroad.  

It'll enable recognition of overseas standards and Building Consent Authorities will need to accept products already certified offshore.  

Building Industry Federation Chief Executive Julian Leys told Ryan Bridge this will impact a number of supplies. 

He says they're looking at products with the biggest costs - like internal linings, external claddings, windows, plumbing products and insulation.  

The Bill will have its first reading later this month. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The government's making it easier to import a bigger range
of building products. It is fifty percent more expensive to
build a standalone home in New Zealand than it is
in Australia. Now Minister Chris Pink he's introduced legislation that
will open up the market in theory and bring in
more competition. But should we be worried about faulty products
being led in leaky building et cetera. Building Industry Federation

(00:21):
Chief executive Julian Lasers with me this morning. Julian, good morning,
Good morning Ryan. What products do we need a better
range of?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, it's interesting, I think was what the government has
identified is they can look for equal or of equivalent
standards where there are costs or concentrations in construction. So
they're looking for products such as internal linings, external claddings, windows,
plumbing products and insubation and because that's where often some

(00:52):
of the you know, the biggest costs are and that
they're going to focus on those things. And for example,
water which is an Australian certification has I think two
hundred thousand products that are certified that meet our building code.
Those sorts of things will be you know, able to

(01:14):
be brought into the market and provide much more choice,
and there should be little risk of not betting our
building code.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
Right, So if it's good enough for the Aussies, it's
good enough for us. When you say little risk of
not meeting our building code, is there a chance that
these products might perform differently here than over there?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, it's a great question, because of course it's not.
You know, products are never just they never just act
in isolation in a building that we know, building systems
based on the performance of many different criterias. If you
take a wall, you know that's made up of a
frame and trust insulation plus the board of ventilation, all
that sort of thing. Yeah, I think I think that

(01:56):
there was always in the detail our it be as
I record, it is going to have to be very
clear in what those standards are, and so I think
will only peck standards and products specifically from those of
trusted overseas jurisdictions that are as close to our kinds
as possible. That's the only way they can avoid any trouble.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Julian, is this going to shift the dial in terms
of how much a cost to build a home in
New Zealand? Standalone home being fifty percent more expensive to
build here than Australia. Is it going to shift the dial?

Speaker 2 (02:29):
I don't look, I think it's going to shift the dial.
Building materials may for about twenty percent of the cost
of a house overall. I think it will certainly reduce
some cost and bring those costs down over time, which
is what we're all aiming for. You know, anything's better
than nothing, right, so if we can get more choice

(02:50):
and more competition, that that's going to be good.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Thanks for your time this morning, Julian Lays, Building Industry
Federation chief executive.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
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