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In 2010, it took an average of nine months to build a detached house in Australia. That is not the case in 2024.
Recent analysis from Master Builders Australia has revealed that building times for detached homes and apartments have significantly lengthened, driving the peak body to comment that “it shouldn’t take this long to build a home”.
These findings, obtained from recent analysis of Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data, have shown it took an average of 12.7 months to build a detached house across the jurisdictions in 2023–24, marking a 40 per cent increase on the average of nine months’ construction time recorded 15 years prior in 2010–11.
The peak body noted that construction times had lengthened even further for apartment buildings, with the average of 33.3 months from approval to completion in 2023–24, representing an 80 per cent increase on the average of 18.5 months observed in 2010–11.
Speaking on these increases, CEO of Master Builders Australia, Denita Wawn, explained that these extended construction time frames are hindering the industry’s ability to address housing demand and confront the housing crisis.
“There are a range of contributing factors including labour shortages, declining productivity, union pattern agreements, supply chain disruptions, complex regulatory requirements, occupational certificate backlogs and critical infrastructure delays,” Wawn said.
With Master Builders’ analysis revealing that productivity has declined by 18 per cent over the last decade, the CEO highlighted the advancements which have occurred in technology and construction methods in stressing that “we should be building homes faster, not slower”.
“Productivity is more than an economic buzzword. This data proves what happens in a construction environment without meaningful reform,” she said.
For houses, construction times were recorded as taking the longest in Western Australia where the average duration from approval to construction in 2023–24 was recorded as taking 17.9 months, followed by 15.9 months in South Australia and 14 months in the ACT.
Townhouse construction was recorded as currently taking the longest on average (20.6 months) in Tasmania, with Western Australia not far behind at 20.2 months, and South Australia following with a duration of 20 months.
While data for the duration of apartment construction times was only reported in three states, NSW’s average duration of 39.7 months significantly exceeded the 30.5 months recorded in Victoria and 26.4 months observed in Queensland.
In order to decrease construction times across the country, Master Builders called for action to be taken to address the bottlenecks and inefficiencies around construction processes.
“Streamlining regulatory approval processes, encouraging adoption of digital solutions, introducing incentives to grow the workforce through domestic and international means, and strengthening the domestic supply chain are just some examples,” Wawn said.
This analysis follows comments from Master Builders’ chief economist, Shane Garrett, who noted that ABS data around home completions in the June 2024 quarter showed that the country was on track to fall short by “over 400,000 homes” from the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million homes by 2029.
Reflecting on Garrett’s findings, Wawn linked the housing shortfall to the low apprenticeship numbers in the country, and advocated for the government to increase the number of tradies and apprenticeships to “help Australian builders increase supply so we can come out the other side of this housing crisis”.
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