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Housing crisis driving record building activity in New Zealand

Xinhua, July 26, 2016 Adjust font size:

Construction activity in New Zealand is at record levels as the country struggles with a housing crisis and continues to rebuild its earthquake-battered second city of Christchurch, according to a government-commissioned report out Tuesday.

The National Construction Pipeline Report showed annual construction activity across New Zealand had topped an all-time high of 31 billion NZ dollars (21.72 billion U.S. dollars) and was projected to reach 37 billion NZ dollars (25.93 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017.

"The report shows residential construction is particularly strong and forecasts construction activity to remain stronger for longer as compared to last year's report, with the boom continuing to 2021," Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith said in a statement.

The growth in residential building in the largest city of Auckland - home to a third of the population and the center of the country's housing shortage - was unprecedented, he said.

"Residential construction has been growing at more than 20 percent a year in Auckland for the past five years and is projected to reach an all-time high of 13,332 homes in 2017, and to stay at those record levels until 2022," said Smith.

Another government-commissioned report out Tuesday showed that 539,500 people would be employed in construction-related occupations by 2021, up 10 percent from last year.

"The construction industry was the largest contributor to annual employment growth last year, with 27,500 more people employed," Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce said in a statement.

"The occupations expected to experience the largest growth in the next five years are electricians (14 percent), plumbers (13 percent) and civil engineering professionals (11 percent)."

Joyce said the government was actively supporting the industry to train more skilled workers to meet the demand for new housing and construction. Endit