Stimulus boost: Home builders booked out to 2022

But one Mackay builder fears a stimulus grant extension could push the industry beyond capacity

Kate Olsen said the stimulus grants created more work than her business could handle. Photo: Brett Wortman

AS the deadline for the $25,000 HomeBuilder stimulus grant nears, Mackay builders are campaigning for it to be extended.

Mackay and Whitsundays Master Builders regional manager Malcolm Hull said the stimulus had created demand and injected money into local businesses, which had a flow-on effect for the region’s economy.

He said the grant program would expire on December 31 this year but the industry group was planning to put forward a case to extend it until December 31, 2021.

Modure Constructions operations manager Kate Olsen said while the stimulus program had been effective, some builders were already fully booked out until 2022.

She suspected the stimulus program would be extended, creating more demand and injecting money into the region.

But she said she held concerns for the reputation of local builders because they could not meet the demand right now.

Mrs Olsen said her business began back in 2013 and growth had been irregular.

“We’ve experienced ebbs and flows and tried to stay in line with our capacity,” Mrs Olsen said.

Since the latest stimulus program began, she said business inquiries had tripled, now averaging 80 to 90 inquiries a month.

Before the stimulus, they received only about 30 inquiries a month.

Mrs Olsen said the business was unable to answer all the calls coming in and had to let some go, dropping down to about 50 inquiries a month.

Modure Constructions operations manager Kate Olsen said the grant programs were likely to be extended to next year because of the impact it had had on the construction industry. Picture: Jim Cullen

“We need to concentrate on who we commit to and make sure our commitments to those people doesn’t drop, because one month I was on the phone pretty much all day, every day taking inquiries,” Mrs Olsen said.

“Some people (were) not even taking no, just wanting to go on waiting lists and getting very frustrated at the fact that I either couldn’t book an appointment or we were a month out from booking an appointment.”

The increase in inquiries prompted her business to consider growing because her builder could only provide five quotes a week and was at capacity.

Until that growth decision is made, Mrs Olsen said she reduced the number of answered calls so she could deliver a quality service to those she was able to book.

“If we had two of him, definitely there would be more work. We’re at capacity with getting the quotes out,” she said.

Mr Hull praised builders booked so far out but he believed each builder should consider only the workloads they could handle.

He said extending the housing grant deadline was good for the industry and consumers.

“It will help out a lot of people across the broader community,” he said.

More stories:

Housing grant will ‘bitterly disappoint’ homeowners

$25K grant ‘bottleneck’ could stop dream home construction

Mrs Olsen said she believed other home builders were in the same boat and could not take on too much work and she feared some took on too many projects.

She said the grant did not necessarily benefit everyone, as some found they had to borrow or spend money to meet the criteria and said some were frustrated they did not get what they wanted.

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