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A mass of builds nearing completion in South Australia is putting pressure on gyprock and cabinetry supplies, a peak body says, even if a shortage of materials like steel has eased.
Key points:
- Figures show the cost of building materials has stabilised in South Australia
- Masters Builders SA says the problem now is finding tradies to finish new builds
- A spokesperson says the steel shortage has eased, but now there is pressure on gyprock, cabinetry supplies, and windows
Master Builders Association of South Australia (MBASA) Policy director Estha van der Linden said a lot of construction that capitalised on the former federal government's HomeBuilder grants during 2021 and 2022 was entering its final stages.
"So we're seeing some of those finishing trades having difficulty finding staff to keep up with the numbers," she said.
"If you're putting your slab in the ground, you could be waiting six months just for windows."
But while the finishing materials were hard to access, the cost of building was generally stabilising, if not decreasing.
There was a 12.9 per cent increase in all house-building materials in 2022, but only a 1.9 per cent increase during the December quarter in South Australia.
"It's definitely easing off," Ms van der Linden said.
"There's actually been a drop off in prices to the negative. Steel prices have dropped 1.8 per cent and some of the gas and electrical appliances just dropped as well."
Ms van der Linden said the reductions were unlikely to flow onto consumers but would prevent the significant increases seen last year.
An average 12-month build time
Prices aside, Ms van der Linden said finding tradespeople to do the work was still a major challenge.
It is currently taking 12 months on average for a single-storey home to be built, compared with nine months before the COVID-19 pandemic.
"We were hoping [that] going forward with supplies easing up, houses would be able to be built a bit faster," Ms van der Linden said.
"We're seeing a big skills deficit in bricklaying.
"But we're also now starting to see areas where it's actually the finishing trades [as well] — cabinet makers, tilers, some of those areas."
Demand expect to increase again
Ms van der Linden said there had been a slight drop in home loan and building approvals, which had reduced demand for new builds.
But while the market was expected to slow in the next 12 months, especially due to increasing interest rates, there were a number of factors that could reignite demand.
One of those was the state government's commitment to building 400 new public houses.
"We've also got to consider that in the Riverland areas as well, there are about 4,000 properties that need to be rebuilt, or knocked down and totally rebuilt [due to flooding]," Ms van der Linden said.
"It's going to be a very interesting 12 months to see what actually kind of comes about with all of these things in the mix."
Overall, however, Ms van der Linden said the cost of building looked more promising going forward.
"And if we see our borders open a bit more and see more migration come in as well, the skill shortages might not be quite so acute," she said.