Home building to fall 20%

The Housing Industry Association is predicting that new home building will fall by around 20% from it’s recent peak.

If you’re working in the building industry, and especially if you’re working mainly on new builds, this is pretty scary news.

This chart from the AFR gives a great visual on how new building commencements are forecast to fall.

The HIA says there is hope for the low point to be reached soon, so that building commencements can stabilise:

“If economic activity improves, the credit squeeze dissipates, home prices stabilise and the recent stimulus measures take hold, the supply of new work into the pipeline will soon reach its low point.”

“Interest rates, income taxes and lending restrictions have all been eased in an effort to support activity and economic growth. State and Australian government investment in infrastructure is also important to support labour market growth.”

Fletcher Building, owner of brands such as Tradelink, recently said they are bracing for falls of around 20% in building approvals in Australia.

They said whilst there may be some slight signs of improvement, there was nothing solid at this stage and they would be “pleasantly surprised” when it did.

How do figures like this affect you as a tradie? Do you find that a drop in building activity immediately affects your work or your business?

Our experience is that good tradies will always find work regardless of how the economy or industry is going. That goes for both employed tradies and self-employed.

The guys who are perhaps not at that level are the ones more likely to suffer. As employees they’re more likely to be the first ones “let go”, and as business owners they’re more likely to be the ones struggling to find work.