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flag New Zealand’s defective homes cost $2.5 billion yearly due to weak oversight and outdated practices, prompting reform efforts.

flag New Zealand’s construction industry faces a $2.5 billion annual cost from defective homes, driven by a decades-old “build now, fix later” culture. flag A shift to performance-based building codes in 1988 weakened oversight, leading to widespread quality failures—92% of homes had defects in 2014—and ongoing issues like damp-related health problems and costly remediation. flag Despite a new Building Bill aiming to assign liability and streamline consents, experts say lasting change requires government-led adoption of lean principles and ISO 9000 quality standards, plus a national commission to enforce consistent practices and end systemic inefficiencies.

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