Construction Pulse Check

Recently, New Zealand’s vertical construction industry has faced its fair share of challenges – closed borders, supply chain disruption, rapid inflation and elevated interest rates. In this report, we look to further understand and document industry sentiment, beyond the published industry metrics. We also highlight critical issues facing project delivery from the contractor’s perspective and what the industry can do to address these as New Zealand embarks on the massive infrastructure challenge ahead.

Our Infrastructure and Capital Projects team interviewed 16 of the largest contractors across New Zealand with a focus on those working in the $5 million to $500 million+ vertical build sector to hear their views. Feedback was also sought from a selection of clients and agencies delivering projects in this sector to shape our insights.

About the Construction Pulse Check

We conducted structured discussions with each contractor, covering the key areas of project planning and delivery. For each subject area, we started with quantitative questions to gauge general views and opinion, followed by a series of open questions focused on gaining a greater understanding of issues from a contractor perspective.

In summarising these discussions, we identified six key themes: the skills challenge, effective Early Contractor Involvement (ECI), the hidden cost of New Zealand’s tendering process, project documentation quality challenges, productivity challenges and market shifts. These were reasonably consistent across the interviews and represented areas where the industry participants could see real opportunities for practical improvement.