Building consents for education show a large upward swing from last year, both in renovations and new builds. While there was a dip in consents in 2020 (likely impacted by COVID uncertainty) there has been a swing back in 2021. Most notable though is that while numbers are slightly up, value per project has increased greatly.

The average cost per square metre has increased from $3241 m² in 2020 to $4549 m² in 2021. This increase is largely driven by Auckland projects, but still evident in other areas (most notably Waikato).

If you’re looking to make the most of this push in education construction, the focus needs to be on winning over larger firms — half of all education construction comes out of larger firms. For these companies, they’re looking for NZ test results to gain confidence in products they’re specifying, and they’re more likely to need a number to call for your tech reps.

Being proactive and efficient are the ways to win the hearts of these larger firms focussed on education, but this needs to be supported with excellent detail and data that gives them more confidence in specifying your product. To win education, you need to take the time to work on both — understand the specification formats your targets are using, and make sure your information can easily slip into those formats.

Data source: Statistics NZ Building Consents

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