New Zealand Certified Builders chief executive Malcolm Fleming says the two biggest challenges facing Kiwi tradespeople today are uncertainty about forward workloads and a lack of government direction on vocational education and apprentice training. In a wide-ranging interview, he covered the skills shortage, regulation, and what the industry needs to recover.
On the Skills Shortage
“This is a cyclical issue that became particularly evident during the housing boom following COVID-19, when new building consent numbers rose above 40,000 on a 12-month average for the first time since the mid-1970s,” Fleming said. “The peak was 2022, when residential consents hit 50,000. The 2024 market is very different — skills shortages are no longer the acute issue they were, as demand for those skills has reduced.”
This presents its own problem. When construction downturns reduce demand for tradespeople, apprenticeship uptake falls too — and when the market recovers, the industry finds itself short of the skilled workers it needs. Fleming is concerned that the current slowdown will lead to an undersupply of qualified tradies when the residential market turns, which the sector’s demographic profile suggests will be a serious issue within a few years.
On Vocational Education
The ongoing reform of New Zealand’s vocational education system has created significant uncertainty for the building industry. Changes to the sector — including the proposals around Industry Training Organisations and the roles of polytechnics and private training providers — have left employers unsure about what the apprenticeship pathway will look like in three to five years.
Fleming believes clarity is urgently needed. Employers will not invest in apprentice development if they don’t know what the qualification system will look like by the time those apprentices are due to complete.
On Construction Costs
“Construction costs have grown at a rate that has genuinely surprised people,” Fleming said. The 44% cost increase over four years documented by QV CostBuilder represents a structural shift — not a temporary spike. Many factors driving that increase (labour costs, material prices, compliance costs) are not easily reversible.
For NZCB members, the practical implication is that pricing needs to reflect current and near-future costs, not historical benchmarks. Fixed-price contracts covering extended project timelines carry escalating risk, and contracts need to address this explicitly.
On Consumer Trust
Fleming is consistent on one point: the path to a stronger industry runs through trust. Homeowners who have confidence in their builder — backed by the accountability that comes with Licensed Building Practitioner status and NZCB membership — are more likely to invest in quality rather than defaulting to whoever quotes the cheapest price. Building trust through quality, transparency, and professional conduct is both the right thing to do and the commercial foundation of a sustainable trades business.