21 October 2022
The Housing Summit has been a great opportunity to make a difference to Queensland’s housing crisis but new housing initiatives will be moot unless major issues facing the industry are addressed.
Master Builders provided a submission ahead of attendance at the Summit supporting much needed measures, such as investment in social and affordable housing and measures to ensure adequate land supply; but highlighting that the building industry is staring down the barrel of a crisis that will impact their ability to deliver what our state needs.
Master Builders CEO, Paul Bidwell, expressed concern that the over-regulation of the sector is inhibiting its ability to deliver the housing Queensland needs.
“We’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. We’re facing the perfect storm and cracks have started to appear in the foundations of our industry and they’re not going away,” Mr Bidwell said.
“The reality is, if we want any initiatives that come out of the Housing Summit to work, we also need a commitment to review and remove the unnecessary red tape tying up new construction. Over-regulation is adding cost to new construction and not producing a corresponding benefit for owners or subbies.
“Builders are being asked to construct the housing we need but they have one arm tied behind their backs. The Queensland Government needs to take action for the industry to effectively play its role in addressing the housing crisis.
“We have significant National Construction Code (NCC) changes in accessible housing and energy efficiency where unrealistic transition periods have been provided, an expensive and complicated trust account framework that doesn’t provide the protection that was promised, and costly and complex Minimum Financial Requirements (MFR) reports that haven’t produced any benefit – all of which combine to hinder the industry’s ability to adopt and response to the challenging conditions.
“This week we’ve seen one of the nation’s biggest home builders advise industry can’t meet the timeline for new NCC changes and housing costs will increase if more time is not given. The software tools to determine design changes to meet 7 star energy efficiency are simply not yet available and the accessible housing rules are still be written so designs cannot yet be updated with certainty.
“Many new developments in South East Queensland include narrow and small lots. Builders and developers are telling us they can’t meet accessible housing requirements and provide the same number of dwellings or bedrooms. We need more time to work out sensible solutions to these challenges.
“A transition until at least October 2024 is needed for NCC changes.
This week John Murray AM, the author of the Murray Review of Security of Payment Laws in Australia, agreed the Queensland project trust account regime was too complex and burdensome, noting the legislation has made it virtually impossible for many contractors to comply.
“If project trust accounts roll out to contracts over $1 million we won’t see subcontractors getting paid any differently but we will see builders suffer unnecessary time and costs struggling to comply with nonsensical legislation.
In the MFRs, Queensland builders and subcontractors face a costly and complex regime that costs thousands to prepare. The MFR framework is more burdensome than anything in the rest of Australia and has not produced any benefit to Queensland businesses.
“Unless level heads prevail and more time is provided for builders to adapt to significant changes, 2023 is shaping up to be crunch time for building in Queensland.”
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