Welcome to the Building Industry Bulletin

The quarterly building industry bulletin aims to provide updates on the latest trends within the Queensland building industry as relevant to the activities of the Department of Public Works.
NIEIR Queensland regional construction activity update

The latest report from the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research (NIEIR) estimates total Queensland construction activity was $5.5B (in 2002/2003 prices) in the December quarter 2004. According to NIEIR, there has been a recent "catch up" in non-residential building costs with the housing sector where costs grew rapidly during 2003/2004. Continued growth in the non-residential sector and projected strong growth in the engineering sector, expected to largely offset the decline in the residential sector, will mean that total Queensland construction costs are expected to remain high until June 2006.
[ View the full report ]
DPW Contractor Survey

Consistent with the previous three quarters, there has been little shift in the reported difficulties employing sub-contractors with 64% of respondents in April 2005 indicating they were experiencing difficulties compared to 60% in February 2005, 63% in October 2004 and 65% in June 2004. The most acute shortages are still being reported in the Fitzroy, Darling Downs and Far North regions with 80% of respondents in these areas experiencing difficulties. Whilst there has been an increase in the proportion of respondents reporting difficulties employing sub-contractors in the areas of plumbing, plastering, electrical and formwork, shortages in the areas of wall and floor tilers, bricklayers and painters have remained at approximately the same level as the previous survey.
[ View the full report ] DPW Tender Activity

Although the total value of projects that went to tender increased by more than 300% from the December to March quarter, the ongoing high level of activity in the non-residential building sector continued to impact the number of tenderers per project. The average number of tenderers in the March quarter remained at just below three per project, representing a decline of 6% from the same quarter in 2004.
[ View the table ] Tender Price Forecast

The Department of Public Works has forecast a 1-2% increase in building costs per quarter in the period to June 2007.
[ View the table ]

Building Materials Cost Comparison

The cost of Queensland building materials monitored by the Department remained unchanged between the December quarter 2004 and the March quarter 2005 with no price increase recorded. According to Reed Construction Data the largest increases in material costs during the last 12 months have been in face bricks (Settler Range) (17.53%), 25mpa concrete (6.11%) and 200mm standard concrete block (5.19%).
[ View the full table ]