Since we were discussing Christchurch

…please allow me to point you to the latest Insight from NZIER (my day job). Shamubeel Eaqub has put together the numbers so you don’t have to.

A few highlights (if I can call them that):

• residential building area consented is only just now almost reaching the pre-earthquakes level. Ay caramba! A bunch of house FELL DOWN and we aren’t replacing them?
• non-residential building consents are below 2007, 2008, and 2009. Of course, there was talk of over-building then, and also a clear shift from run-down spaces to shiny happy tilt-slab spaces. But still, to reiterate, a bunch of buildings FELL DOWN or were pushed over.
• Only 5,400 taxpayers appear to have left, with an unknown number of dependents in tow. That’s really good news, because it means that people aren’t just abandoning the city.
• OTOH, the data show 28,000 lost jobs! Yikes! This is a city with a population about a bit less than 400,000 people. Lovely that people have decided to stay, but how are they putting food on the table?

So, please, have a look.