SR328 New House Owners' Satisfaction Survey 2014 (2019)

This report presents the results of the fourth New House Owners’ Satisfaction Survey. The survey looks at how new house owners rate their builder and how satisfied they are with the builder’s performance. The survey covers a sample of New Zealand’s housing consents. It excludes consents where the owner built their own house, the house was a spec-build or the house was built by a family member.

Results highlight the continued struggle for new house owners in Canterbury. High workloads and new owners forced into building by the earthquakes have made for a tough environment for the industry. However, there is an expectation from owners that these builders need to find the time to follow up adequately after occupancy.

This survey saw a widening gap between performance and client expectations of the new house building industry. New house owners rated their builder lower on all of our key measures than they had a year previously. There was also a decrease in the proportion of respondents that would recommend their builder and an increase in the proportion that would speak critically.