Melbourne, Australia
Residential builders and trades across Australia continue to stay in high demand, according to data from residential construction management software Buildxact.
Buildxact’s Residential Construction Activity Report (October – December 2020) found that nationally the industry finished the year in an extremely strong position with 2020 representing significant overall growth in the average demand for estimates from builders for the second consecutive year.
Even through COVID-19, confidence is high among home buyers and renovators, with low interest rates, personal savings at an all-time high and a range of government incentives like HomeBuilder grant helping to drive this trend.
David Murray, Buildxact CEO commented, “This increased demand by home builders and renovators, has placed significant demand on the supply of materials, impacting the component price. Rather than absorb this cost in the margin of the jobs, the Builders are maintaining their margin levels and passing the increased material costs onto the customer. In Buildxact’s view, this is due to the fact there is such a large volume of working being quoted and delivered”.
After an extremely busy first half of the year, Western Australia continued to record the nation’s strongest growth in demand for estimates, becoming the only key state* to see a significant increase in the average number of estimates per builder through Q4.
In Queensland, 2020 was a strong overall year for new builds, with average number of December estimates per builder increasing 41% on 2019 levels.
While the full impact of Victoria’s prolonged COVID-19 lockdown restrictions is ongoing, demand for new builds remains high across the state. The average volume of estimates per contractor for all job types combined in Q4 was up 5% on Q4 2019.
Murray went on to say, “Residential custom home building and renovations has proved mostly resilient through the pandemic. Strong quote volume in Q4 2020, coupled with an improving economy should see this continue. Snap lockdowns, such as the one in Victoria that closed Construction, will have an impact on consumer confidence if they occur regularly. In addition, increased sales have impacted supply constraints which may also provide some headwinds in housing construction.”
*For the purposes of this report, key states include Victoria, NSW, Western Australia and Queensland
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For more information
Brittany Mauran
Marketing Communications Manager, Buildxact
0427 014 959
