This indicates costs-pressure is affecting completion numbers.A blowout in building costs combined with high interest rates has discouraged new development of apartment towers, and the constrained supply is putting upward pressure on rents, according to experts.
Multi-unit residential buildings were down 23 per cent in a year, while house approvals rose 2.9 per cent. “Increasing interest rates further is not going to help that part of the market – if anything, it will make it worse. Raising rates in this environment for housing is bad.” “You had a big rise in non-residential construction – warehouses, factories, data centres, hospitals – so that sucks out capacity in the residential industry,” Ottley said.
Housing Industry Association chief economist Tim Reardon said all skilled tradespeople were in demand, from carpenters and plasterers to plumbers and electricians.Reardon said the federal government had not yet added tradespeople to the priority list for migrant visas.“There is a range of longer-term solutions, which does include the industry training more apprentices. But the industry would also like to be able to gain access to overseas skilled tradespeople,” he said.
“The cost of construction will continue to rise, but over the next few years, we expect it to be at a rate similar to or consistent with CPI. That’s assuming that we don’t see additional taxes or regulatory imposts imposed upon home-building.”