The Daily Dose #347 | Construction Insolvencies, Rising Concrete Costs & Queensland’s $174B Pipeline

540 construction companies entered voluntary administration on a single day in August. It sounds catastrophic. But there’s an important detail buried underneath that number.

In this Monday Builder Briefing, Az from The Good Builder takes eight minutes to unpack three stories Australian residential builders should have on their radar this week.

First, we look at the extraordinary spike in construction insolvencies. All 540 companies that entered voluntary administration on that day belonged to the same corporate group. Remove that event and construction’s share of company failures across July and August falls from 37.4% to 23.5%.

It doesn’t mean the pressure across construction has disappeared. It does show why builders need to look beyond the headline number.

We also look at concrete surcharges and levies and why the increases appearing on builders’ invoices aren’t necessarily being reflected in the headline construction cost indexes.

Finally, Queensland has 617 major projects worth $173.76 billion in the pipeline through to 2030. That sounds like good news for construction, but there’s another question for residential builders: where will the people required to build it all come from?

Housing doesn’t compete for labour with housing alone. Infrastructure, commercial construction and major projects need many of the same electricians, plumbers, concreters, earthworks crews, supervisors and construction professionals.

In this episode:

• What really happened with the 540 construction company administrations

• Why the insolvency headline needs context

• Concrete surcharges and the costs indexes may not capture

• What builders should be watching when pricing new work