Renter Hunger Games: Epic battle for workers as major projects crunch housing crisis

In a cruel twist, Queensland’s housing supply crunch is being made worse by a mega-pipeline of infrastructure projects which is driving up labour costs.

Queensland’s housing supply crunch is being made worse by a mega-pipeline of mainly state-funded infrastructure projects which are driving up labour costs industry leaders have warned.

And the epic battle for workers in a tight labour market is unlikely to ease anytime soon, with early figures from Construction Skills Queensland anticipating 18,000 people with a range of skill sets will be needed in the immediate term to undertake the major build.

The number of workers needed over the long-term pipeline to the 2032 Olympic Games is estimated at 80,000 people — with the gaps to be filled with a mix of training locals up and poaching from interstate and overseas.

The dire figures come as a new survey of the property industry, including developers and managers, revealed housing affordability in Queensland is expected to deteriorate amid constraints in delivering supply.

Major infrastructure projects, such as Cross River Rail, are contributing to tight labour market in the construction industry.

The Property Council/ANZ survey of 744 industry players nationally in June found the sector’s confidence was declining, with the organisation’s Queensland head Jen Williams saying the results reflect concerns playing out on the ground.

“Housing affordability continues to deteriorate due to a range of constraints hindering the delivery of new supply,” Ms Williams said.

“While material costs and supply chain disruptions have eased, there is no doubting that labour costs and a solid forward work program of infrastructure projects are having a flow on effect to the ability of the industry to deliver new supply.”

It comes at a time when renting a house or unit in Brisbane now costs more than in Melbourne according to the latest PropTrack data, with the rental vacancy rate at 1 per cent and the 300,000 Queenslanders estimated to be under housing stress.

Warnings about a major pipeline of infrastructure work, largely funded by the state government, causing labour costs to spike and in turn making private sector housing developments uneconomical were echoed by the Australian Constructors Association and Master Builders Queensland.

Construction Skills Queensland chief executive Brett Schimming said there is some overlap in workers across the state’s major infrastructure build — including hospitals, roads and rail — to housing but disagreed that there was cannibalising of labour from one to the other.

Australian Constructors Association chief executive Jon Davies said the overall supply constraint meant the cost of labour was sky high, which in turn made the economics of private sector housing developments problematic.

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon. Picture: Dan Peled / NCA NewsWire

Housing Minister Meaghan Scanlon on Wednesday said it was accepted “the labour market is really tight” while also making “no apology” for the multibillion-dollar build program across housing, health, transport, and energy.

Mr Schimming said early figures from CSQ research pointed to the need for 18,000 extra workers in the next two or so years in order to deliver the pipeline of planned work, with 80,000 needed for the long term.