Building trade falls

THE availability of home building trades fell in early 2007, according to the HIA-Austral Bricks Trades Report for the March 2007 quarter.

The report show home building trades remain in short supply throughout metropolitan and regional Australia despite softer home building conditions.

HIA’s chief economist Harley Dale said that in the last three and a half years the supply of tradespeople had consistently fallen short of the level industry requires.

The shortage has led to a price increase with the 13 key home building trades rising 0.4% over the March quarter – an increase of 3.4% over the year.

On a state by state basis, quarterly trade prices increased by 6.8% in regional Queensland, 5.7% in regional Victoria, 5.2% in regional NSW, 2.9% in Adelaide, 2.0% in Brisbane, 1.8% in Regional South Australia, and 1.5% in Sydney.

Prices fell by 5.7% across Western Australia and were down by 0.9% in Melbourne.

Australian Property Journal