MEDIA RELEASE: NSW home building times are stuck in a COVID time-warp with ABS data showing that dwelling completion times have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.
Matthew Pollock, Executive Director of Master Builders NSW said, 鈥淥n average it鈥檚 taking more than a year to build a new house and over three years for a high-rise apartment project from approval to completion. This is holding up supply and driving up costs, which is not good for anyone.
鈥淔or more than a decade prior to the pandemic new home builds were completed in around nine months but it now takes more than a year on average. It鈥檚 even worse in the high-rise apartment sector where average completion times have blown out by more than a year.
"We saw completions times jump in 2020, but instead of returning to normal, they've stayed at pandemic levels.
鈥淏uilders want to see reduced dwelling completion times, particularly in the middle of the housing crisis. Our members don鈥檛 want to see people having to wait for new homes any longer than they need to.
"The longer build times are also reflected in higher prices as increased labour and holding costs are incurred by builders and at least partially passed on to consumers.
鈥淭he NSW government will be watching the situation closely, particularly the three-year average build times for high-rise apartment projects.
鈥淟onger build times and increased costs will hardly be music to the ears of the Premier, Treasurer and key building Ministers as they work to deliver on their housing and infrastructure promises in a fiscally responsible manner and accelerate new multi-unit development projects in urban areas with established transport, civil and social infrastructure.
鈥淭his is why 缅北禁地 strongly supports the micro-economic reform agenda of the Minns government. But we need all levels of government onboard. We need to see uniformity across local councils. The Feds need to get out of the way and let builders build. This is why the freeze on the NCC is so important. The future abundance agenda of NSW depends on a vibrant and productive residential construction sector.
鈥淥ur members are having to pull tradies off building sites around the state and employ new office staff to tackle the increased administration burden created by the high level of new and changing regulation and red tape.
鈥淚n every region around the state, they are also dealing with increased regulatory inspections, development approvals that have increased in some cases from six to thirteen pages, contradictory interpretation of regulations between regulators and local councils and a patchwork of local, state and federal laws, rules and regulations to comply with.
鈥淭o top it off, there is also the seismic change to home warranty insurance that is about to see thousands of small home building businesses across the state lose the support of industry owned insurance experts due to changes that will force them to rely only on a government operated self-service portal.
鈥淏uilders need to secure home warranty insurance cover before they can start a new home build. If anything goes wrong in that process, they can lose their eligibility for that insurance meaning they can鈥檛 build and could go under. The last thing we need is less new homes being built and a potential spike in builder insolvencies.
"Making the housing industry more productive again is the solution to speeding up dwelling completion times and boosting supply. Every government decision should have this as its goal, and we need the Premier to continue his mission to roll out microeconomic measures needed to tackle red tape at the local council level and to encourage the Federal Government to continue to freeze changes to the National Construction Code."
Media contact: Ben Carter | Head of Government Relations, Marketing & Corporate Affairs | 0447 775 507 | bcarter@mbansw.asn.au