Sydney facing tradie exodus

A massive number of Sydney tradies are considering heading interstate, in a move that would send shockwaves across the industry and home build and renovation costs soaring.

They are the other essential workers. The bricklayers, plumbers, electricians and concreters on the front line of our NSW construction crisis. And they are ready to skip town just when we need them the most.

An alarming new survey from online trade marketplace hipages has revealed 65 per cent of NSW tradies working in the home building space had considered moving interstate or to a new city, due to growing pressure on their business viability.

The snapshot of 500 business owners and leaders revealed the main concerns to be the increasing cost of materials (40 per cent of respondents), the cost of living crisis (34 per cent), increasing business costs such as petrol and insurance (31 per cent) and a reduction in demand for their services (31 per cent).

Ross Parillo (centre) with his partner Rosie and daughter Ellie -17. Ross is a brickie who would consider moving to Qld for work. He is one of the rising number of tradies ready to pack up and move just when we need construction staff more than ever. Picture: John Appleyard

MORE: New real estate uplift ‘not just seasonal’

A concerning 39 per cent believed they were at risk of going out of business unless they raised their prices over the next two years.

The challenging times for tradespeople reflect the dire situation of the overall construction industry, which faces ongoing headwinds due to inflated costs of materials, supply and labour shortages and lengthy delays in development approvals, according to hipages CEO and co-founder Roby Sharon-Zipser.

“The pipeline of work is softening but there are other factors at play, including the cost of materials, which have really driven up the cost of building projects,” Mr Sharon-Zipser said.

“Some tradies in the construction space might have (fixed) contracts lined up where they don’t have the ability to adjust their prices for the materials that they’re bearing the cost increase on.

A tradie exodus could push construction costs higher.

MORE: Sydney to be hit by ‘extraordinary price and rent changes’

“It’s also just ridiculous what’s happening at the councils, with all the rules and regulations.

“There’s a lot of red tape to get development applications through. There are too many opportunities for objections from neighbours and people that may not even be neighbours. Especially with the housing shortage we have.”

The delays in approvals also extended existing delays in tradies getting paid, which Mr Sharon-Zipser said was another major pain point.

“Some people are waiting 90 to 120 days after they’ve done the work to receive payment and I think that’s unfair,” he said. “Who can do that? Tradies are all sole traders, they’re not big businesses. They can’t sustain that, it makes it too hard.”

The news comes after NSW Premier Chris Minns unveiled his plan to lift the state’s new home supply from 48,000 to 75,000 homes a year, including the development of a number of three and four-storey, Paris-style walk-up apartment blocks.

.

But to achieve ambitious building targets, the people who do the work need to be looked after, according to Katie Stevenson, NSW executive director, The Property Council of Australia, who said the hipages survey results were “scary”.

“We’ve got to make sure we keep those really critical workers in NSW because it’s so crucial for the construction industry and our overall economy,” Ms Stevenson said

“We need a lot more homes than we’re building now.

“We need almost double to be delivered each year to keep up with our projected growth. That’s going to be really hard in NSW, but that’s going to have the biggest impact because that will put downward pressure on house prices and stop people needing to live further afield, which adds to the cost of petrol or public transport and exacerbates that pressure that families are facing at the moment.”

“I’D BE IN QUEENSLAND ALREADY”

Sydney bricklayer Ross Pirillo has been considering relocating his business BuildEzi and Remedial Work, after experiencing challenges around finding qualified labourers at a reasonable price.

“Finding qualified tradespeople is hard and they want top dollar, Mr Pirillo said.

“It’s getting harder and harder to incorporate that in quotes and stay competitive.

“When it comes to pricing, if you’re not being competitive, a lot of tradies will undercut you to get the work. And sometimes it doesn’t make sense to actually do the job, because you’re not really breaking even or you could be losing money, depending on where the jobs are located.”

Ross Parilla is dreaming of Queensland. Picture: John Appleyard

Mr Pirillo has thought about moving to Queensland for greater access to work.

“A lot more work’s going on in Queensland and I think the cost of living would be less. If I didn’t have family here, I’d probably be there already.”