eboss, the online technical library for the New Zealand building industry, has conducted its quarterly survey of building industry professionals to assess confidence levels amongst the architects, architectural designers, builders, engineers, interior designers, specifiers and suppliers that comprise the New Zealand building industry. More than 175 building industry professionals representing every region of New Zealand responded to the survey.

54.3% of respondents say the industry has held up better than they expected since the December 08 downturn, which is an improvement of almost 15% in just one quarter.  In addition, many have taken stock and concluded things did not deteriorate as much as expected. The number of people saying the industry downturn was as they expected is down more than 10% from Q2 to just 33.5% in Q4.

Just 11.6% say the industry has deteriorated faster than they expected. Among these is one Auckland-based architectural designer who says, “new contracts are not starting quickly enough, and the size of them is generally smaller then previous due to a lack of capital amongst customers.”

Another Canterbury-based architectural designer in this camp says, “I could not believe the way the confidence fell out of the market and everything just imploded.”

ADNZ Chairman, Mike Flooks says the improved confidence overall reflect his observations across the industry.

“The signs are all there that it’s improving. The phones are ringing again and enquiry is up, which makes everyone feel more positive. Customers may be slow committing to jobs, but we are finding that people are now going ahead with jobs that were put on hold a year ago. The arrival of summer helps and always creates a bit of a lift, but we are recovering, though it is likely to be slow and steady.”

The confidence report can be viewed here, and if you would like to read more about the market sentiment of our national audience, we will be posting results from our 2009 Q4 survey weekly.