Construction award pay rates moved again from 1 July, the same way they do every year when the Fair Work Commission hands down its annual wage review. If you employ anyone under the Building and Construction General On-site Award (MA000020), the minimums you were paying in June are not the minimums you owe now. And […]
Sydney's ferries have been getting some love. The Fifth Estate recently ran a piece framing Sydney's harbour as a "safe harbour", an antidote to the dangers of private transport. It is part love letter to the city, part argument that moving people by water and rail beats moving them one car at a time. Easy […]
Renovation cost blowouts are back in the news. realestate.com.au reports that Victorians planning a renovation may need an extra $20,000 buffer on top of what they expect to spend, a warning aimed at homeowners but one every builder and tradie should read closely. When the property press starts telling your clients to pad their budgets, […]
TL;DR: Markup and margin are not the same number. A 20% markup on costs gives you a 16.7% gross margin, and mixing the two up is one of the most common ways Australian builders quietly underprice work. There is no official published benchmark for a construction markup percentage in Australia, but commonly quoted industry ranges […]
TL;DR: A progress claim is a staged demand for payment as work completes, and in Australia it sits on two legal rails: your contract and the security of payment legislation in your state or territory. Structure your payment stages before you sign, claim on time every time, back every claim with evidence (photos, variations in […]
Industry has a clear message for Senator Andrew Bragg: fix the National Construction Code, don't rip it up and start again. That's the thrust of recent reporting from The Urban Developer, where builders and property groups pushed back on talk of tearing up the code, arguing the real win is a simpler, more stable NCC. […]
Economists at ING THINK have flagged something odd out of the Netherlands: housing permits over there have hit a ten year high, yet actual construction is still slow to get off the ground. Approvals up, shovels not moving. If you follow building approvals Australia data from the ABS each month, that gap should sound familiar, […]
If you caught any construction industry news this week, you'll have seen two names everywhere: Senator Andrew Bragg and David Chandler, the former NSW Building Commissioner. The Fifth Estate ran a front desk column on how the pair managed to grab such outsized coverage. The names will rotate. The pattern won't. And while the argument […]
The Australian Institute of Building Surveyors has pushed back against the campaign to simplify the National Construction Code, warning that stripping detail out of the code in the name of productivity could do more harm than good. That puts a peak body of the people who certify our work at odds with a fair chunk […]
Reuters reported this week that Australia's plan for 1.2 million new homes is colliding with an uncomfortable truth: the builders meant to deliver them are already flat out. If you have been watching construction costs Australia wide stay stubbornly high while politicians talk about supply targets, this story matters to you, because it confirms what […]
