Timber shortage leading to construction delays, higher costs
Families in the process of building new homes are facing massive cost hikes — some as high as $40K — and months in delays due to a timber shortage.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Home builders are having to pay as much as an extra $40,000 and endure delays of as long as three months thanks to a timber shortage.
And Bunnings has become a daily battleground for wood as tradies try and fill the insatiable demand for timber products for a surge in renovations.
A NSW Upper House inquiry has this week heard the $80,000 worth of timber currently needed in each new home is facing price rises of 20-30 per cent.
While Deputy Prime Minister John Barilaro last month ensured an additional 270,000 tonnes of timber will enter the domestic supply chain over the next three years, experts say that won’t cover an estimated 1.7 million tonne shortage.
Vishu Moondra and wife Aditi Gupta have been told this means construction of their new home will cost 10 per cent more — about $42,000 — and be delayed by 13 weeks.
“We should have been in our new home by Christmas but that looks unlikely now,” Mr Moondra, from Rouse Hill in Sydney’s northwest, said.
“We had to go back to the bank and get extra finance. I am getting very worried and the high costs and building delays are putting lots of pressure on me and the family budget.
“It’s not just us — three of our neighbours are also looking at empty blocks with no prospect of their homes being built in the short term.”
NSW Labor natural resources spokeswoman Tania Mihailuk said the shortage must become a high priority for the state government.
“As NSW finally emerges from its Covid lockdown, the construction and home building industry is set to launch into overdrive and is now facing a shortfall of over 50,000 timber frames, which is only going to exacerbate the already critical shortage of timber in NSW,” Ms Mihailuk said.
“While we understand that the 2019/2020 bushfires heavily impacted timber supply, nearly two years on, the NSW Government still hasn’t presented a plan to find a solution to the current shortfall of a massive 1.7 million tonnes of timber.”
Toby Watson, Bunnings general manager merchandise, said “we have seen unprecedented demand for timber products for a number of months now due to Australians spending more time at home and the incentives for new home builds and renovations”.
“This is creating a challenge for the entire industry with demand particularly strong for structural timber,” he said.
“We’re working with our suppliers and trade customers to forecast demand and plan earlier in the build process so we have additional time to manage orders as best as possible.”
The inquiry this week heard Covid-19 delays, fires in the US and demand in Europe has constrained imports.
Last month the state government directed Forestry Corporation to divert selected softwood log exports — impacted by the China trade embargo — to domestic markets.
However, inquiry chair and Shooters Fishers and Farmers MLC Mark Banasiak said the government’s target to build more than 1.5 million additional homes by 2060 looks in trouble.
“The shortage means we are already seeing significant hold-ups on construction on the south coast and in southwest Sydney,” he said.
A spokesman for Mr Barilaro said “a record 5 million tonnes of fire-affected timber has been supplied to the industry, ensuring NSW timber operations could maximise available timber, processing it into essential products including house frames”.
“The extent of this salvage operation has been critical in ensuring the viability of timber processors in NSW, and the important jobs they generate,” he said.
“This salvage harvesting effort has been complemented by the NSW Government’s $46 million equity injection to Forestry Corporation to support re-establishing plantations, expanding two production nurseries to increase seedling production and repairing infrastructure and roads damaged by fire.
“This season approximately 16 million seedlings were planted to re-establish timber plantations, well up on the normal 10 million.”
Got a news tip? Email weekendtele@news.com.au