Tradies already planning move to Auckland to work in flood rebuild

Wednesday, 1 February 2023

A flood has hit Auckland for the second time in days, with houses and streets underwater. (Video February 2023)

The Auckland floods are likely to create a lot of well paid repair and rebuild work, and tradies are already putting plans in place to move to Auckland from other regions to capitalise.

Building company owner Stacy Basham has already recruited two plasterer-painters and one builder from Christchurch who want to go north, and a hammer-hand carpenter from Palmerston North.

Auckland developer David Whitburn said the floods were likely to result in higher going-rates for those willing to travel.

This was not due to insurance companies splashing cash, but was simply a result of supply and demand, Whitburn said.

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Stacy Basham said while some houses had sustained bad structural damage in slips, the majority had escaped with only damaged carpets and gib.

“The reality is it’s not them leading the market, it’s a supply and demand thing. They put their rates up because they can, they say ‘oh yeah just put the rates up $5 an hour’ then next month it’s another $5 an hour because they’re still getting bookings.”

Basham was among the first tradesmen to move to Christchurch after the earthquake, which had created a boom in work.

“I know all about foreign immigration, or work immigration, with people coming in from other cities. It was a big part of what we did down there,” he said.

Basham’s building and consultancy firm, Pace, employed 30 to 40 contractors at any given time.

Any influx of workers was likely to ramp up in a few weeks, once more insurance assessments had been made and works agreed to, Basham said.

“We might not see an immediate influx, but there’s still quite a lot of assessment work to do, and repair strategies formulated before there’s actually work to be done.”

He said the influx of tradies would not be as large as happened Christchurch, with flood-related repairs likely to be finished in six to 12 months.

He said not all tradies would be attracted to the type of work the floods had created.

“In the industry we would say it’s shitty work. It’s not like a new architectural build, which is what all the tradies want to work on.”

“A lot of it is ripping up wet soggy carpet and pulling wet gib board off walls and putting in dry insulation and new wallboards and new skirtings.”

David Whitburn currently has two large developments underway in Auckland.

Many of the builders who might come up for the good money and steady work would only visit for a week or two at a time, he said.

Basham said feedback he was getting from some potential recruits in Christchurch was the cost of flights meant the money would have to be “exceptional” to make the trip worth it.

During the Christchurch rebuild you could get a flight for $40 or $50, Basham said, but now you could spend $700 to $800 on a round trip.

Also unlike in Christchurch where it was a complete rebuild, the Auckland floods would probably draw and put pressure on the decorative trades, like carpet layers, plasterers and painters.

“I think there would have to be some good money on offer to lure those finishing trades up here,” he said.

Whitburn said while the cost of finding tradesmen may increase, and some regions may find their workforces reduced, the sector was showing signs of a slowdown, with the number of jobs dropping.

Work resulting from the floods might actually keep some tradies working who would otherwise be out of work.

He said demand from the floods may also put the spotlight on how many foreign builders were allowed to migrate to the country.

He said the settings for allowing builders to emigrate here were “overly restrictive” and was likely to lead to more internal migration to Auckland.