Good news for the construction industry: The drywall supply crisis is over!

Builders across the country say the drywall supply crisis is over as the construction industry slows.

They said a decline in building permits and construction activity, coupled with an increase in the supply of other drywall, meant the product was more readily available recently than it had been in the past six months.

Your Place Building director Josh Chapman said the plasterboard supply crisis was over for his company, but so was the boom in construction.

"Projects that would have been snapped up a month ago are not going to continue. Those projects that didn't happen have a bigger impact on the supply chain than anything else," Chapman said.

In May, the chief executives of Master Builders and the Construction Industry Federation of New Zealand said the industry was entering a downturn as high costs and falling house prices made many projects unsustainable.

The downturn in the industry means there is now more supply of drywall because demand for the product has dried up, Chapman said.

The government task force assigned to address the gypsum board shortage has ensured that gypsum board alternatives Elephant Board, USG Boral, ProRoc and SaveBOARD have been approved in accordance with building code quality requirements, so these brands are now available as alternatives to Gib board used.

Winstone Wallboards, owned by Fletcher Building, has also built a Gib board distribution system in which it distributes drywall stock to builders based on requested dates and immediate demand levels.

A spokesman for Fletcher Building said the company had seen "positive trends" suggesting its distribution model was working.