I am pleased to release the findings of the 2018 BIM in New Zealand report — the fifth year of a five-year programme that follows progress of an industry control group in accelerating the introduction of BIM into NZ.

Thanks to the support of BRANZ, the report includes results of a survey of asset owners and managers (client control group), in order to understand what progress BIM is having in facilities and asset management. 

Over the last five years BIM use has grown from 34% of projects to 59% — an impressive change in a short space of time (for an industry traditionally conservative about change). The growth rate has remained stable in 2018, up two percentage points to 59% of projects using BIM (from 57% in 2017).

While the growth rate in projects using BIM has remained stable, the actual uses of BIM have shifted in 2018. The last year has seen deeper use of BIM across the building lifecycle; in particular 30% of industry participants say they have used BIM within the operate phase, up from 20% in 2017. Gaining increased use in the operate phase will help clients to realise the full value of investment in BIM, and potentially shift the focus from the initial design cost to a fuller understanding of the long-term benefits of BIM across the whole-of-building over its whole-of-life.

Results from the client control group show that almost half of clients surveyed are integrating digital asset or spatial information with asset management systems. Across all clients surveyed, only 11% say they’re unlikely to start to integrate this information or that it’s not something they’re considering. This means that almost nine in ten clients are either integrating information now or open to doing so in the future.

The BIM Benchmark Survey report examines the actual use vs. predicted use by the industry control group from 2014 to 2019:

• BIM growth over time (projects and proportion of work)
• Most popular BIM uses (what it is being used for) and
• Those uses most likely to grow — the top BIM uses by profession

As well as insights into:

• Client use and challenges in using BIM models
• Barriers slowing BIM uptake
• How to accelerate further industry uptake
• The government's role as a client in accelerating the development and use of BIM
• Predictions of use for 2019