The City of Logan is outperforming all other areas in the state, and almost all in the country, when it comes to housing approvals.
But industry experts say homes aren’t being built fast enough.
Over 4000 developments were approved in Logan last year, beating other Queensland areas by over 1000, with just two Victorian areas meeting the same amount.
According to Master Builders Queensland the average time taken to build apartments has blown out to 26 months – a six-month increase.
House construction has been prolonged by one month.
Master Builders CEO Paul Bidwell said building costs had risen by over 40 per cent.
“There is some good news,’ Mr Bidwell said.
“While costs are still rising (+3 per cent), the materials price hikes of the last three years have slowed and they’re now at their lowest rate in over two years.
“Steel used to construct homes in Brisbane has dropped in price (-15.9 per cent) over the last year, while timber has seen no change (+0.3 per cent).
“However, cement products have risen 17.2 per cent and concrete, cement and sand costs have risen 10.1 per cent.”
He said the speed of construction state-wide was moving “at a snail’s pace”.
Mayor Darren Power has long said the city was “doing the heavy lifting” when it came to reaching housing targets, despite some of the most difficult conditions.
He said infrastructure charges were a major barrier preventing faster construction, and material prices were deterring development.
“Because the price of concrete, and the construction costs and land costs have gone up, not many developers are now building units,” Cr Power said.
“They’ll build them on water – the Brisbane River and Gold Coast – but not many developers are building units on normal blocks.
“The costs are just too much.”
The city’s planning chair, councillor Jon Raven, said thousands of developments were approved and waiting to be built.
“There are 60,000 approved lots in South East Queensland waiting to be built,” Cr Raven told MyCity Logan last month.
“Local government is doing its bit.
“The construction industry needs to start building, but in the current market they don’t have the capacity to do so.”
Mr Bidwell said there were measures the state government could take to help the construction industry build more homes sooner and more affordably.
“For example, providing more support to existing building businesses, including to hire and retain skilled workers, and slashing red tape by easing up on the recent building code changes and project trust account requirements,” he said.
“To build more homes faster, we need to work smarter, such as providing training and support for building businesses to incorporate modern methods of construction, supporting small businesses to adopt business improvement software, and supporting businesses to engage more apprentices.
“We can’t ignore existing homes and ensuring they are able to withstand extreme weather events.
“Every time there is a storm, cyclone, flood or fire, skilled building trades are called away from existing projects to complete repair work.
“We are calling for rebates for property owners to improve the sustainability and resilience of existing homes if they use a licensed contractor to carry out legitimate upgrades.”
