Busy tradies cash in
Consumers pay price as demand grows
CONSUMERS are paying the price with a big surge in the cost of hiring builders in Queensland in the past year.
New figures from ServiceSeeking.com.au, which monitors hundreds of thousands of quotes, show the cost of builders rose by a third from $66.77 an hour to $88.63.
And earthworks contractors are now earning $92.41 an hour gross.
ServiceSeeking spokesman Jeremy Levitt said increasing rates reflected supply and demand and urged people renovating or building to compare quotes to get the best price.
“There are a lot of jobs coming through, particularly in southeast Queensland. That inevitably pushes up prices,” he said.
ABS data released last week shows Queenslanders spent more than $14 billion on residential building work in the year to March.
That included $1.1 billion on renovations and additions, a figure tipped to reach almost $1.5 billion in the coming 12 months.
Overall, tradies’ fees increased by 6.75 per cent in the Sunshine State during 2017-18, the second-biggest growth in the country after South Australia.
Other big risers include oven installers and repairers – up 27.7 per cent to $83.02 an hour – and tilers, whose fees jumped by more than a quarter to $55.33.
Removalists, who topped last year’s list, dropped to the third-most expensive – their average hourly rate falling 2.4 per cent to $87.91.
Mr Levitt said while the hourly charge-out fees were gross rates which had to cover business expenses such as tools, vehicles and insurance, it was still very lucrative.
“I think a lot of Australians would be envious of the earnings potential of tradespeople,” he said.
“They work hard but they can earn big dollars.”
Master Builders Queensland deputy chief executive Paul Bidwell said: “There’s no doubt prices are going up but not at that scale. Renovations are still strong. But builders’ margins are very slim especially in apartments.”
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