Scheme take-up builds

SIGNIFICANT demand for land and new homes across the state has led to a tricky situation for Tasmanian home building businesses.

Creative Homes Hobart founder Greg Rothacker said they had never experienced such a high inquiry level following the Federal Government’s $25,000 HomeBuilder Scheme and the State Government’s $20,000 HomeBuilder Grant.

“Talking to all our peers, everyone’s experiencing exactly the same thing. Everybody just wants to jump out of the box and take advantage of this opportunity,” he said.

However, with very little land available, he said people were being left disappointed.

“We’ve really just had to ... explain to people that if you haven’t got your finance arranged, then there’s no land available at the moment,” he said.

“Now it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a block halfway out to the eastern seaboard — somebody’s probably looking for it and going to buy it at the moment,” he said.

Master Builders Tasmania executive director Mathew Pollock said more than 1000 Tasmanians had registered an interest in building their dream home over the past two weeks.

“That holds a potential to inject over $45 million in direct stimulus to households, and also to support up to $250 million worth of activity in the building and construction sector,” he said.

Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam said the HomeBuilder package meant a world of difference to people wanting to buy a new home, build their own, or renovate.

“It also means the difference between having a job and not for people in the construction sector,” he said.