| 129 T T Hugh de Lacy Looking forward to expected demand Joyce Built covers the range of residential builds, from single units to townhouses to standalone builds. Joyce Built BUILDING They may be a bit slow coming through, but new residential developments given life by the Reserve Bank’s recent sharp interest rate cuts are promising to give a boost to Jordan Joyce’s Christchurch building company, Joyce Built. “The rate cuts are undoubtedly going to boost residential developments in Canterbury, but they’ll be slow working their way through the system, and I wouldn’t expect to see any major lift in demand for another six months – perhaps in spring,” Jordan says. And if that happens, Jordan will be in a good space to expand his family business from its present staff of four, which includes an apprentice. Joyce Built covers the range of residential builds, from single units to townhouses to standalone builds, and with Canterbury’s relatively low house-and-land packages attracting an influx of arrivals from the North Island, and from Auckland in particular, Jordan is poised to respond to any increase in demand. “There’s definitely demand there, but towards the end of last year it wasn’t as strong as it has been, with a lot of potential clients sitting back to see what the market is going to do,” Jordan says. “Even in Canterbury, where there’s always seemed to be plenty of land keeping housing prices down compared to other regions, especially the North Island, land for the sorts of projects we like to take on is now harder to find.” Land availability is critical to Jordan’s business, because he’s essentially a spec builder, taking on the risk of building homes in the expectation of profitable sales once they’re completed. Typical is the four-unit townhouse development Joyce Built is currently engaged in, delivering three-bedroom homes on a block of land on Westminster Street, St Albans. The floors were down and the project approaching completion towards the end of last year. The company’s next job is a 330sqm house in Woodend, north of Christchurch, to be followed by three standalone houses in St Albans St in Merivale. Jordan completed his carpentry apprenticeship with Steve Wilford Builders, coming out of his time in 2015 when the first of his three children was born. This prompted him to launch out on his own by subcontracting to existing builders, but it wasn’t long before he was in a position to take on design-and-build spec projects, and to begin hiring staff. The quality of the company’s work has ensured that it’s never been short of it, even during the slump in the market that followed the Covid pandemic. But Jordan’s hard-headed about the recovery, which he doesn’t think will be as quick or as strong as some building industry pundits are reckoning and it will be well into the second half of this year before the response to the interest rate cuts will become obvious. But, slow as it might be, the building market is heading in the right direction and, with the labour market freeing up, Jordan is set to grow when the opportunity presents itself.
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