Plea to avert building industry ‘bloodbath’

A $40,000 new-home buyer’s grant needs to be introduced within a month to avoid a potential “bloodbath” in the building industry, and save up to 100,000 jobs across the state.

The Master Builders Association said the sector was facing an unprecedented crisis, with traffic through show homes down 90 per cent across the country since the start of COVID-19, and conversion rates from those visits at just 50 per cent.

Grant Galvin, the chief executive of Master Builders Queensland, said a new-home buyer’s grant – from either the Queensland or Federal Government, or a combination of both – would be the only thing that could rescue the sector short-term.

“There is minimal construction work set to carry on beyond August, so if the government does not act now, this sector is going to fall off a very steep cliff come September when hundreds of thousands of people find there’s no more jobs,” Mr Galvin said.

“I wouldn’t want to be the government going in to an election in October if this is allowed to happen. We need a lifeline to avoid what is likely to be a bloodbath in our industry and we need it now.”

At the start of the year about 1.2 million workers in Australia and 252,000 Queenslanders relied directly on construction for their employment. Latest figures from the Australia Bureau of Statistics indicate that more than 77,500 jobs nationally and 12,900 in Queensland have been lost since the start of COVID-19.

Under a worst-case scenario for the state, Master Builders

estimates that in the COVID aftermath, state job losses could reach 100,000.

A report by accountant Ernst & Young, commissioned by Master Builders, shows that across the state a new-home buyer’s grant could save up to 21,000 jobs, provide a $5.86 billion lift to the wider economy, create construction activity to the tune of $3.37 billion, lead to 2270 new homes being built and provide support to 355 construction businesses, most of which are small family companies owned by “mums and dads”.

Steve Foley, the chief executive of Coral Homes, one of Australia’s biggest builders, said the drop in sales during COVID-19 had wider implications such as restricting the acquisition of new land, stifling any future development.

He agreed a new-home buyer’s grant would greatly help to restore consumer confidence and bring footfall back to show villages.

“We can see some enormous benefits if people can get this help,” he said.

“It will be a really good opportunity for people to buy a home, which I have not seen in many years.”