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Source: ONE News -
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The volume of residential building work rose in the December quarter, the first large increase in nearly nine quarters.
The seasonally and inflation-adjusted value of residential work for the quarter rose 7.4% to $962 million, compared with a 4.2% drop in the third quarter.
"To put this increase in context, the trend had been declining for two years and the level is still about a third lower
than the most recent peak in September 2007," says business statistics manager Louise Holmes-Oliver.
But the value of non-residential building activity fell 6.1%, the third consecutive quarterly fall.
The trend for non-residential building activity declined throughout 2009, down 13.2% over the year.
ASB economist Jane Turner says residential construction is expected to continue to recover over the coming quarters.
"However, the slowdown in house sales over the past few months does provide some downside risks to our 2010 residential construction outlook," she says.
Turner says the weakness in non-residential activity, the sector is likely to improve this year.
"Non-residential activity tends to have long lags between consent issuance and construction activity, and a reasonable level of consent issuance in 2009 should flow on to construction work being done this year.
"We expect activity to remain relatively steady over the first
half of 2010, and pick up towards the end of the year."
