More cranes on the horizon

Rider Levett Bucknall’s latest crane index shows that Auckland and Christchurch are leading construction growth nationally

 The index shows that the number of cranes operating on construction sites in New Zealand has increased from 72 in the second quarter, to 79 in the fourth.

The largest net increase was in Christchurch, where the number of cranes rose from 23 to 31. Of those, 29 are working on commercial projects across the city (the other two are in the education and hotel sectors).

Statistics New Zealand’s Value of Building Work report for the September quarter shows that $510 million of non-residential building work was put in place in Canterbury. The latest consent stats also show that since September 2010, $1.2 billion of non-residential earthquake-related consents have been identified in the region.

Auckland recorded the next highest increase, with four more cranes taking the City of Sails total to 33 – the highest in the country. The number of cranes present on multi-unit residential construction sites rose from 12 to 17, as demand for housing in the city remains high.

In the 12 months to October, nearly 9,000 or $2.9 billion worth of new dwelling consents have been issued in the Auckland region.

Best of the rest

Wellington had the next highest number of cranes (nine), which remained unchanged from the last report published in the second quarter. Five are on commercial builds, while the remaining four are split evenly between the residential and education sectors.

High population growth in Queenstown saw the number of cranes working on residential projects double from one to two, while the removal of three cranes from retail projects caused the overall number to drop from five to three.

The number of cranes remained steady in Hamilton and Dunedin, on two and one respectively, while in Tauranga it fell from three to zero as projects in the area begin winding up.