Really appreciate you taking the time to share these observations. I think your final sentence is appropriate, we should take a pride in the NZ housing industry – I have personally worked in it for 3 years and have a lot of respect for the excellent skilled individuals I met and had dealings with during that time.

I am surprised by your comment stating that the only person you can trust is a surveyor. I think that is a little too much of a generalisation – sure they are by the role they play largely impartial; however to tar all of the others as being untrustworthy is unfair and far from the truth.

I would also contend with your assertion that many people sell houses in need of renovation – many people sell many houses for any number of reasons. Whilst I would have no idea what the proportion is, I would say selling because a house needs renovation is potentially very low – more likely many people sell when the renovations (make-over) is done. Now you could be right to question the quality of comprehensiveness of that work!

It is interesting your reference to UK and Sweden, two countries I have lived in and can attest to the quality of house building there and equally would say UK building is in general only OK, much like NZ.

“Before buying a house in New Zealand it is necessary to study local construction techniques over the last century… become a surveyor first… because you cannot trust builders, local government, surveyors and estate agents to do their jobs competently or honestly.”

If you don’t do that you run the risk of missing design and construction flaws left by the ‘professionals’. It is a sad testament to the building industry’s incompetence that so many people feel that is necessary. It is also patently impossible: identifying water ingress isn’t a job for which the public should have to become amateur sleuths. Temporary masking of problems during dry summer months, when most sales are conducted, is easy.

The Guardian article in the UK was advice to buyers. Buyers are investigating properties that are for sale. What proportion of the properties for sale suffer from construction problems? What we can be sure of is that it is a lot higher than the proportion of problematic houses relative to housing stock as a whole.

It is the nature of any market for many people to sell buildings in need of renovation… or those causing disappointment… in the same way that you would sell a car you were unhappy with. I would not be at all surprised if the word plague is wholly appropriate for the percentage of poorly made houses on the housing market in NZ.

Lastly, this catastrophe didn’t come out of nowhere. Building cultures are established over a long time. If this kind of thing is taking place in NZ you can be sure that there has been a lot more poor quality construction and maintenance occurring over quite some time. It is a shame to learn that NZ is being held to Britain’s example when the British building industry is itself infamous!

In 1988 Margaret Thatcher raised building regulation standards in the UK to levels that approximated those current in Sweden in the 1930s!

It’s time for a little professional pride in the NZ housing industry.

Thanks for taking the time to share these thoughts and views. I think the title of the blog post is most relevant – a good knowledge of local building issues is vital – I think that message is clear, there is always a buyer beware requirement for any property purchase in any country.

The UK article used the phrase “plague” as in “plague of locusts” which implies a very high percentage. NZ has a housing stock of 1.6 million of which around 200,000 were built during the period when regulations and practices by some builders / architects etc were suspect, that means 1.4 million properties were not built in that period – they represent 88% of all homes.

The issue is serious and all in NZ see it as serious – I did not mean to be-little the issue.

I completely concur that the blame lies with a combination of architects, manufacturers, builders, subbies, as well as local authority inspectors.

We could dwell on the why, the problem is it happened. The issue is (1) we are all now paying for it one way or another – taxes and rates and insurance premiums and (2) Buyers need to be aware – for that reason I think your comments add to the better understanding and appreciation of the issue.

UK Buyers beware be very aware….., what you read in that artical its worse far far worse I can assure you.

I noticed this on a NZ Bank website:

Built to last – or a pile of problems?
Buying a home? How can you tell it’s structurally sound? Consumerbuild shows you how to spot ‘leaky home’ syndrome – and how to avoid buying into other potentially expensive repairs and maintenance problems. Before you make that offer, check out Comsumerbuild. It could save you a pile of problems.