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High-paid union tradies are "largely" responsible for Queensland's worsening housing shortages, according to the state's peak real estate lobby.
Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) chief executive Antonia Mercorella said unions were driving up housing costs but people were too afraid to point it out.
"Everyone's talking about this but no one wants to say it publicly for fear of retribution," she said.
"The statistic I get quoted frequently by people in the know is we're 30 per cent more expensive [than other states] and that's largely because of unions like the CFMEU [Construction Forestry Maritime Mining Energy Union]."
Her comments come as Premier Steven Miles details the government's five-point plan to build 53,000 social houses by 2046.
Ms Mercorella said she supported the idea of building more social houses in principle, but in practice there were steep barriers to boosting supply.
She said well-intentioned government programs such as the first homebuyers grant and the Housing Investment Fund were, in her view, failing to to make much of a difference.
Ms Mercorella said these failed to address the "elephant in the room" of low housing supply exacerbated by tradies with high wage expectations.
Loading..."We've got a lot of our tradies at the moment working on big [state government] projects where they're charging a premium," she said.
"The challenge with that is they're occupied on those sites and those projects — that's not a bad thing — but they're also wanting that kind of money when they're building elsewhere.
"We need to start having a conversation about the impact that unions are having in Queensland … if we're going to get serious about addressing homelessness."
CFMEU Queensland Northern Territory state secretary Michael Ravbar said Ms Mercorella's "outburst" was proof of how out of touch she was with the construction industry.
Mr Ravber said the union would never apologise for fighting for their members.
"The housing crisis is caused by ruthless real estate agents and dodgy developers, not blue-collar workers," Mr Ravbar said.
"Many CFMEU members are renters. They, like thousands of other Queenslanders, suffer at the hands of predatory real estate agents who always put profits ahead of people."
PRD chief economist Diaswati Mardiasmo said growing wages were indeed a contributing factor towards preventing more houses being built.
However, she said there was also growing material costs, labour shortages, and excessive government regulations standing in the way of development.
"When it comes to supply I agree with Antonia that wage costs are a major factor, but it's also the availability of people and the regulations that impede supply," Dr Mardiasmo said.
"There's a lot we can do from a regulation perspective, for example, making it easier for developers to subdivide."
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