Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ankit Sharma: Master Builders CEO on the construction sector being a primary driver in GDP growth

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Ankit Sharma: Master Builders CEO on the construction sector being a primary driver in GDP growth · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So GDP came in right where they expected it, up 0.2%
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: for the June quarter. Construction, biggest bolter, up 2.7%, more
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: residential building, biggest jump since Q2 of 23. Ankit Sharma,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Master Builder, CEO. Morning, Ankit, how are you?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Ryan.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: So is this sort of ring true to you? Is
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: this what it feels like out there, especially with residential?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: It does actually. So our state of the sector survey
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: showed that 68% of building businesses have strong or steady pipelines.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: That was up from 68, 64% last year. And we
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: have been seeing steady signs of improvements in both business
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: and consumer confidence. So it's actually good to see that
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: confidence turning into real growth.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Whereabouts is it happening?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Well, I think Canterbury is definitely outshining, doing really well.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So I think it's probably had one of the strongest
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: quarter in like 15 years. And I was in Christchurch
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: earlier this week and I was asking, look, what's driving this?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: So they are seeing a quite a significant demand coming
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: from first home buyers. The one which I think was
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: very interesting is Canterbury is seeing a lot of internal
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: migration and the people who are migrating into Canterbury from
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: Auckland and other regions are They're not worrying about what's
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: happening with the economy or election coming up. They actually
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: want to buy a house for their family. So that's
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: quite a significant driver of that growth. And they are
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: also now seeing an uptick into downsizes. So these are
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: people wanting to downsize into a lower cost, lower maintenance home.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: So those three segments, I think, are driving quite a
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: significant residential growth in Canterbury.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Plus, there's a whole bunch of townhouses being built for Airbnb,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I've noticed, particularly in the inner city.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Yes, and there's a lot of investor interest, probably not
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: as much as they've seen historically, but they are seeing
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: a lot of investors getting into those townhouses. And what
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: those townhouses are doing is they're actually bringing the cost
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: of buying into a house down. So that's why those
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: segments of people moving into a new city are first-time buyers. Suddenly,
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: the housing is very accessible, and I think that's driving
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: probably this strong uplift.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Ankit, good to have you on the show this morning.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: Ankit Sharma, who's Master Builder's Chief Executive.