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Record construction boom as New Zealand struggles with housing crisis

Xinhua, December 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The value of building work in New Zealand topped 5 billion NZ dollars (3.56 billion U.S. dollars) for the first time in the quarter ending September as the country struggles to deal with a housing crisis.

The total comprised 3.3 billion NZ dollars (2.35 billion U.S. dollars) in homes built and 1.9 billion NZ dollars (1.35 billion U.S. dollars) in non-residential work, the government statistics agency said Thursday.

Building work in the biggest city of Auckland, home to a third of the population and the center of the housing crisis, was up by 32 percent year on year, said Statistics New Zealand.

The volume of residential building work rose 2.4 percent in the September quarter, following rises of 5.7 percent in the June quarter and 5.6 percent in the March quarter.

"Residential building activity was up again in the latest quarter, on top of solid increases in the previous two quarters," business indicators senior manager Neil Kelly said in a statement.

The volume trend for residential building work has doubled over the five years since the low point in the September 2011 quarter.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has warned repeatedly that soaring house prices in Auckland were rippling out to neighboring regions and posing a risk to the country's financial stability. Endit