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Building Industry Insights

Three Key Ways We Can Speed Up the Building Consent Process

Professor Anthony Hōete shares three recommendations from ModelDocs — a BRANZ funded research programme that delves into NZ’s building consent process to seek behavioural transformation.

What can LBPs, architects and BCOs do better to reduce consenting timeframes?

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23 June 2025
16 June 2025

Retention Money Part 2

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In LBP skills maintenance 124 we gave a general overview of retention money, what it is for and what contractors should look out for if they choose to retain it as part of a commercial contract. This month, we’re looking at retentions again from the point of view of a subcontractor who is having retention money withheld from them. 

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16 June 2025

Being Prepared for Building Inspections

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Licensed Building Practitioners (LBPs) play a critical role in ensuring the structural integrity and weather-tightness of New Zealand’s residential buildings. However, recent data and industry commentary suggest that a significant number of LBPs are not adequately prepared for building inspections, leading to concerning failure rates. These failures often stem from issues such as non-compliance with the Building Code, incomplete documentation, or work being carried out beyond the LBPs scope of competence.

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26 May 2025

Poor Documentation for B1 and E2 is Slowing Down the Building Consent Process

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Professor Anthony Hōete shares the results of ModelDocs — a BRANZ funded research programme that delves into NZ’s building consent process to seek behavioural transformation.

One of the key findings is that B1 and E2 represent over half of all RFI line items related to NZBC clauses. So, what can we do to reduce those RFIs?

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Cost Effectively Measuring Carbon Emissions

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This month MyImprint looks at methods and tools available to help small to medium-sized NZ businesses gauge their emissions accurately, and without breaking the bank. 

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3 May 2025

Proposed Building Consent Exemption Conditions for Small Standalone Dwellings

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In April, the Building Performance team published a checklist of the proposed conditions that must be met when using the small standalone dwellings building consent exemption. This exemption is expected to be in force by early 2026.

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2 May 2025

Are You Managing Your Retention Money Properly?

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The retention provisions in the Construction Contracts Act 2002 (CCA) were put in place to protect retention money owed to subcontractors in the event of a business failure, and to ensure retention money withheld under construction contracts is responsibly managed.

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28 April 2025

What’s Really Slowing Down the Building Consent Process?

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In this new series of blog posts, Professor Anthony Hōete looks at the results of ModelDocs — a BRANZ funded research programme that delves into NZ’s building consent process to seek behavioural transformation.

First up: How long is it taking for consents to be processed? And why so many annoying RFIs?

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28 April 2025

The Rising Pressure On Cost in Construction

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Looking at our 2024 Specifier Insights research from a survey of 1,499 architects, designers and builders, we can see that cost is a growing concern. 

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24 March 2025

What Do NZ Architectural Practices Look Like in 2025?

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Looking at our 2024 Specifier Insights research, we can see that the shape of architectural practices has changed over the past two years — there appear to be more architectural practices than ever before, with more architects now working solo, and more practices diversifying by taking on commercial projects.

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6 March 2025

Granny Flats

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LBP Skills Maintenance, February 2025 — for all LBPs | Small standalone dwellings, also known as ’granny flats’ have been a hot topic in the industry recently, beginning with an announcement that the Government was seeking feedback on options to make them easier to build.

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