An academic says the country's consumer watchdog is unlikely to completely shake up the residential building supplies sector.
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The Commerce Commission's latest report into the grocery sector shied away from drastic changes - similarly to its earlier fuel market study.
AUT senior research fellow Dr Richard Meade said the commission's recommendations for the grocery sector might not be what some consumers wanted, but they were measured and sensible.
He said those hoping for big changes in the building sector have to remember New Zealand's small population, meaning business sustainability was harder.
"I think what we see from the previous two studies is there is a degree of pragmatism on the commission's part; that you can't expect that New Zealand will necessarily get to the same sort of industry structure of other countries that are much bigger and have different ways of doing things.
"The sorts of gains we can expect from the studies are unlikely to be as great as many people might hope ... but they are hopefully incremental gains and important structural gains all the same."
Dr Meade said the commission was showing a pattern of being prudent and independent while facing pressure from outside.
"They face a lot of pressure from various parties that would like them to do a great deal more.
"I think they're being very careful about how they do their job to make sure they do a proper job and not do things that might be popular but actually turn out to be counter productive."