2024 Reflections: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities
2024 Reflections: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities
2024 has undoubtedly been a challenging year for businesses, particularly within the construction and professional services sectors. The persistent waves of uncertainty and low confidence have tested our resilience and adaptability. As architects and designers, we’ve been required to remain flexible in response to shifting project requirements, longer decision cycles for approvals, and a collective expectation to deliver more with less.
Throughout this year, Voxell’s priorities have revolved around strengthening both existing and new relationships while adhering to our core values: delivering projects on time and within budget, minimising variations wherever possible, providing quality designs and documentation, and delivering on our service promise. However, like much of the market, these efforts have come at the cost of lower profits and reduced expenditure on non-critical items. Despite these challenges, one achievement we take immense pride in is our ability to retain all our staff—a testament to the resilience and commitment of our team.
The Upside of Tough Times
One silver lining of navigating a recessionary period is the opportunity to refine our operations and develop strategic plans for future growth. This year has allowed us to improve efficiencies across our business, laying the groundwork for future growth and service offerings, higher-quality design, streamlined and more accurate documentation, and a strong foundation for expansion as we move into 2025 and beyond. As we look ahead, there is significant optimism for growth—both geographically and in terms of our team’s headcount.
Design Trends in Medium-Density Housing
In 2024, the medium-density housing market has seen considerable shifts. Off-the-plan sales have been virtually non-existent as buyers face increased choice and demand more competitive offerings. New project briefs have reflected a push for differentiation, emphasising innovations such as:
- Standalone dwellings with zero lot boundaries.
- Improved sunlight access through upper-level living spaces.
- Exploring the feasibility of build-to-rent developments in urban centres.
- Enhanced specifications and interest in Homestar certification to bolster sales appeal.
However, despite more permissive zoning changes, four-level and above apartments continue to struggle commercially, with feasibility remaining a key hurdle. As the market stabilises over the next 2-5 years, we’re hopeful these challenges will ease, enabling a greater variety of housing options.
Key Achievements of 2024
This year, Voxell has celebrated several significant project milestones, including:
- Being part of the team that secured fast-track Resource Consent approval for Plimmerton Farm, enabling 550 new homes with capacity for an additional 500+ houses and apartments.
- Progressing consents for a new apartment project in Wellington.
- Delivering over 700 new homes across Aotearoa through consenting and construction stages.
- Expanding into new sectors and forming relationships with national brands.
- Achieving dramatically improved consenting times through carefully considered, context-sensitive design, and clear, comprehensive, well-coordinated documentation.
- Landing our first apartment project in Tāmaki Makaurau.
What to Watch in 2025
As we move into 2025, several factors will shape the landscape of our industry:
- The impact of government legislation on builders’ ability to self-certify works.
- Potential changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) and zoning regulations.
- The influence of revised flood modelling on project feasibility.
- Shifts in off-the-plan sales dynamics and their implications for developer confidence.
- The balance between house prices and construction costs.
- Potential effects of the fast-track bill on delivering quality housing stock.
- Changes to interest rates and further easing of monetary settings impacting new home buyer demand.
- Potential removal of the schedule method for H1 (energy efficiency) compliance alongside government efforts to advance sustainability objectives.
Looking Ahead
While 2024 has been a year of navigating headwinds, 2025 offers a cautiously optimistic outlook. With steady progress towards improved market conditions, we look forward to contributing to the creation of more quality homes across a diverse range of housing typologies. Here’s to a future marked by resilience, innovation, and prosperity.
