2022 NZIBES New Zealand International Building Expo & Summit is coming!

Event dates: 2022.08.19 (Friday)–08.20 (Saturday)

Venue: Vodafone Events Centre

Organiser: New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association

Co-organisers: MultiMarketing, 3A

 

How time flies! It feels as though the 2021 New Zealand International Building Expo & Summit (NZIBES, known in Chinese as the Building Expo) has only just concluded, yet this year's industry gathering is already returning! NZIBES 2022 is scheduled for 19–20 August, once again at Vodafone Events Centre, with the gala dinner taking place at Cordis Hotel on the evening of 19 August.

After years of development, NZIBES has become the premier annual event for New Zealand's Chinese building industry. It focuses on connecting industry participants and facilitating collaboration, contributing to the industry's healthy development. The annual gala dinner brings together New Zealand's political and business figures and building industry leaders to witness the progress of the country's building industry and the competition for, and presentation of, the NZCBIA Excellence Awards.

As in previous years, this year's event will offer local building materials suppliers, developers, architects/designers, developers and related businesses throughout the supply chain a valuable and distinctive platform for communication: sharing industry information and innovative ideas, discussing industry issues and finding solutions.

For sponsors, NZIBES offers a rare opportunity to showcase their brands and increase their exposure. Each year it attracts sponsorship from dozens of well-known brands and participation from more than a hundred exhibitors. Last year's two-day expo attracted more than ten thousand visits, with over 90 businesses showcasing their products and services. More than 45 brands sponsored NZIBES 2021.

 

First theme: challenges in the medium-density era

NZIBES 2022 will focus on medium-density housing and champion craftsmanship, attracting more New Zealand and international brands while ensuring public safety.

Frank Xu, president of the expo's organiser, the New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association (NZCBIA), believes Auckland entered its first year of the medium-density era in 2021. For developers, shorter development cycles, lower capital requirements than apartment projects and less complex development processes have all contributed to the arrival of this era. For buyers, important reasons for shifting their attention from standalone homes to medium- and high-density housing include government policies supporting such developments, persistently high house prices, lending policies that the Reserve Bank and commercial banks have continued to tighten since 2021, and the introduction of the strictest rental rules in history, with investors favouring new homes offering higher rental returns and fewer problems.

In 2022, medium-density development will accelerate. Every part of the process, from development management and capital management to design and the setting of building standards, construction contract and project management, workforce training and materials supply services, will give the property and building industry substantial impetus. Frank says the current medium-density housing market remains relatively disorderly. Details of key building standards, such as fire protection and internal and external wall systems, depend on materials manufacturers, while contract terms depend on the requirements of banks and industry associations, resulting in a wide variety of payment arrangements and considerable unfair competition. Even the ownership system has gaps: to satisfy buyers' attachment to permanent ownership, most medium-density homes are marketed with fee simple titles. Unlike apartments with strata unit titles, they have no body corporate, leaving potentially endless problems for future maintenance.

Frank also believes the arrival of the medium-density era will profoundly affect integration and development throughout the industry chain. Every part of the process, from development management and capital management to design and the setting of building standards, construction contract and project management, workforce training and materials supply services, will give the property and building industry substantial impetus.

Medium density represents both an opportunity and a challenge. As the theme of NZIBES 2022, Frank hopes that in-depth discussions of technical issues and rule-setting across every part of the building industry will help Chinese building industry practitioners in New Zealand become the biggest beneficiaries of Auckland's medium-density era.

 

Second theme: craftsmanship

The second theme of NZIBES 2022 is craftsmanship, a quality that building industry practitioners, and indeed people in every industry, should uphold at all times.

In recent years, soaring New Zealand house prices, severe shortages of building materials and construction workers, and the medium-density development discussed above have contributed to relative disorder in the industry. Today's complex market makes it all the more necessary for industry practitioners to uphold craftsmanship and professional ethics. Like an invisible measuring stick, craftsmanship should remain an enduring pursuit for the building industry. Putting care into creating more high-quality projects also helps businesses build a strong brand image and reputation, supporting lasting growth.

NZCBIA secretary-general Dylan Huang says the market needs builders and industry practitioners to pursue craftsmanship and uphold professional ethics. Auckland Council has also continued to raise its expectations for excellence in construction. For example, fire safety requirements and standards for townhouse projects are adjusted and changed almost every year.

Frank believes craftsmanship is intangible. If building industry practitioners share this commitment and aspiration, they will produce better-quality buildings and avoid future problems. Only by establishing a strong company brand image can a business go further and endure.

 

2022 NZCBIA Excellence Awards

As the premier annual event for New Zealand's Chinese building industry, the NZCBIA Excellence Awards gala dinner attracts nearly a thousand leading figures from New Zealand's political, business and building communities each year. It also puts the emergence of outstanding businesses and exceptional projects in the spotlight.

The biggest feature of this year's awards is an improved application and judging process, making applications easier and clearer. In designing the awards, organiser NZCBIA has carefully considered how to support the spread and development of Chinese participation in the property and building industry. The NZCBIA Excellence Awards therefore cover a broad and diverse range of categories: alongside the residential projects entrants know well and excel in, they include major public projects, hotels above five-star standard and commercial projects. They also feature categories less common in other industry awards, such as project management, collaboration and commercial construction subcontracting. In keeping with this year's medium-density housing and craftsmanship themes, medium-density categories and a health and safety award have also been added.

Another highlight this year is a dedicated NZCBIA Excellence Awards display area at the expo, allowing winning projects and companies to promote their achievements more effectively and celebrate their success with their teams and clients.

 

NZCBIA Excellence Awards categories

This year's NZCBIA Excellence Awards will accept project entries in the following categories*:

Development Excellence Award

• Projects valued at NZD 10,000,000 or more
• Medium- and high-density residential projects valued between NZD 5,000,000 and NZD 10,000,000
• Medium- and high-density residential projects valued below NZD 5,000,000

Design Excellence Award

• Commercial projects
• Medium-density residential projects

Construction Contracting Excellence Award

• Commercial main contracting projects
• Commercial subcontracting projects
• Medium-density residential projects

Project Management Excellence Award

Collaboration Excellence Award

Health, Safety and Wellbeing Excellence Award

NZCBIA Excellence Awards judges

This year's judging panel comprises nineteen leading experts from New Zealand's property, building and related industries. They include directors and senior technical executives of major New Zealand consultancies, professors and heads of university architecture schools, general managers of major construction and development companies, heads of council building inspection departments, and legal and financial experts.