QUANTITY surveyors remain optimistic and expect a slow increase in workloads over the next six months, according to the Westpac/AIQS BRIX Building Survey.
According to the survey, 23% of respondents expect workloads to continue rising in the June 2008 quarter and only 13% in the September 2008 quarter.
Victorians were most optimistic for the short term with 29% of respondents expecting workloads to increase. However, the same respondents expected a flat outcome for the September quarter.
The lowest level of confidence was surprisingly in
Once again 100% of South Australian respondents expected workloads to pick up in the next two quarters, although a low response rate could bias these figures.
Victorian respondents were pessimistic with regard to office, retail, industrial and hotel pre-construction work, with negative net balances in all of these sectors.
Building costs continue to rise, although the rate of growth is slowing. QSs reported growth of 6.1% in the year to March 2008, down from 6.4% in September. Respondents indicated that price growth over the year to March 2008 ranged from 4.1% in
QSs expect future building costs to continue rising at around 6.0% over the year to March 2009. Of the major states, NSW is expecting the slowest rate of growth at 3.3%. The slowdown in the expected rate of growth in WA to 9% from double digit growth is quite noticeable. The forecast price growth in SA reveals expectations that this State will join WA as the State with the fastest growing building prices in the next year.
On a trade by trade basis, reinforcement had the highest rate of cost growth in the March 2008 quarter at 5.3%, driven largely by increases in QLD and SA.
Australian Property Journal
