Infrastructure News

Report warns of housing workforce shortage threat

Editors Publicspectrum Apr 4, 2024

2 min read

If Australia doesn’t recruit an additional 90,000 skilled tradespeople within the next three months, it could miss its national housing targets.

A new report has cautioned that Labour’s plan to construct 1.2 million new homes in the next five years may face obstacles due to persistent shortages of skilled tradespeople. According to a report by BuildSkills Australia, Australia is facing a pressing need for an additional 90,000 construction workers within the next three months in order to meet the federal government’s housing target by 2029.

A shortage of skilled workers will pose significant challenges for significant national infrastructure projects like Melbourne’s suburban Rail Loop and the Western Sydney Airport. By July, projections indicate a need to increase the construction workforce from 590,000 to 680,000. The Housing Minister, Julie Collins, indicated that building ministers were exploring different approaches to construction and acknowledged that there is a significant amount of work ahead to achieve the government’s five-year housing strategy.

“We know we’ve got an ambitious housing target, which is why we’re getting on with the job, we’re working right across the government,” Collins said on Sunday.

“I know that skills ministers had a meeting just over two weeks ago where they talked about the skills required to meet the housing demand in Australia and the challenges we currently have.”

Infrastructure Australia reports that there is a significant increase in trade and labour shortages, which are expected to persist until 2025. The agency recently published a report projecting a significant shortage of 131,000 full-time workers in the construction industry by the end of 2024.

In March 2024, national vacancy rates reached an all-time low of 0.7 percent, as reported by Domain. The housing market is facing a shortage of available properties, which, combined with a significant increase in migration, has resulted in soaring rental prices and left millions unable to afford housing.

When questioned about the possibility of additional assistance for renters facing financial difficulties in the upcoming May budget, Collins expressed the government’s ongoing commitment to enhancing the affordability of living for Australians.

In a recent statement, Michael Sukkar, the opposition housing spokesman, expressed concerns about the current state of the housing market. He pointed out the record-low vacancy rates, a significant increase in rental costs, and a surge in migration numbers as indicators that the government’s housing target may not be achievable.

“We saw 548,000 migrants to the end of the September quarter – absolute record levels of migration – yet the government’s not using those places to bring in the people skills to build homes,” he said.

“They’re bringing in predominantly students, so we’ve got a migration program that’s not helping build homes.

“All we’ve got is a migration program that’s putting more pressure on the market.”

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