Cairns builders reveal increase in building costs and wait times
Sick labourers and long delays on materials are devastating the region’s building industry, with construction bosses revealing just how much FNQ residents will have to wait — and pay — to build a home during the pandemic.
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A COMPARATIVE analysis shows just how much wait times and building costs for residential property have blown out in the Far North in two years.
Far North Queensland Master Builders regional manager Sharon Vella said ongoing materials shortages, availability of skilled labourers and Covid impacting schedules were the dominant challenges the industry was facing.
“Say a builder has a tiler on, but they get Covid and they’re out for eight days, well that’s a lot of schedules that are all going to be out for a while,” Ms Vella said.
Meanwhile, three different Far Northern builders also reported soaring demand, increased costs and longer wait times when asked to compare the build of a standard four-bedroom house now to before HomeBuilder.
Dixon Homes Cairns managing director Andrew Thomas said challenges in sourcing materials had now given way to scheduling issues with tradespeople falling ill to Covid.
“Since last year, 100 per cent of our jobs have been impacted,” Mr Thomas said.
“One week it’s a timber shortage, then steel shortage, now it’s tradies. We’ve got most of our plumbers off at the moment and about half of our electricians (due to Covid).
“It’s very frustrating not having that certainty and having to reschedule.”
He said demand for housing hadn’t slowed, with the firm currently working on about 100 projects.
However, prior to HomeBuilder, Mr Thomas said a standard four-bedroom home would be completed in under five months, now it was closer to nine.
He said the cost for an average property of that size had increased by about $300 per square meter.
Five Rivers Constructions owner Ram Singh said he was facing the same challenges.
Mr Singh said the costs of a standard four-bed house had increased by about $150-$200 per sq m.
“And it hasn’t stopped, it’s still going up,” Mr Singh said.
He said while materials supply was easing, a shortage of tradies meant achieving the “lockdown stage” of a new build had blown out from about eight weeks to a minimum of 16 weeks.
“The lockdown stage is the slab, the walls are up, the frame goes up, the roof is on and windows are in. Nothing is done inside.”
Cairns Quality Homes director Phillip Terranova said the industry was still “flat-stick” and there had been definite “blowouts” since the introduction of HomeBuilder.
“But I think Cairns has always been boom or bust. The market can’t just continue to sustain this level of growth so in about 12 months we should see it settle.”
Mr Terranova said costs to build had increased by about 25-30 per cent in the past two years and wait times for completion had gone from four to six months, to about eight to 10 months.
Based on the figures provided by the builders, the average increase per sq m had been about $237.50 – resulting in an added $59,375 in costs for a standard 250sq m home.
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