Unnecessary red tape around safety standards is slapping extra costs on homeowners, exacerbating the housing affordability problem, says The New Zealand Institute.
In a report released on Thursday, the market-orientated think tank found increased workplace safety requirements were adding thousands of dollars to the cost of building new homes and maintaining existing ones.
The institute's executive director, Dr Oliver Hartwich, is blaming a WorkSafe campaign rolled out in 2011 which aims to prevent tradesmen from falling from heights less than three metres in residential houses.
"Further increasing the cost of undertaking routine maintenance and building new homes which are already out of reach for many New Zealanders through unnecessary regulation is a major public policy concern and should not continue," he said.
Mike Fox, the director of building company Primesite Homes, said the rules could make a small $NZ4,000 ($A3,603) roof job into a $NZ6,000 job, and added up to $NZ15,000 to the cost of building a single-storey dwelling.
He said the extra cost could end up encouraging people to do the work themselves and take risks.
"The current obsession the authorities have with trying to prevent falls from heights on residential projects is costing the nation dearly, both financially and in lost productivity," he said.
"More lives could be saved elsewhere with the sums involved and the cost excesses are simply exacerbating affordability problems for new and existing homeowners."