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HIA Professional Builder/Renovator Awards are a great way to show customers - and potential clients - that you have sound business and financial management practices. But most importantly, the Award shows your business has the highest standards of customer service and satisfaction.
HIA’s housing awards recognise excellence in the building product or service provided by your business. The Professional Builder/Renovator Award recognises excellence within your business.
The criteria for this award relate to areas that are common to all leading businesses no matter which industry they operate in.
Please provide a brief history and summary of your business covering the questions below (please keep response to a maximum of 400 words or approximately one page).
The information about your business will assist the judges to get a feel for the type of business you run. This will help them assess the answers you provide in the rest of the entry as it will put things into perspective and/or context.
Please address the following:
1.1 How long has your business been operating under its current structure?
1.2 How many trade contractors do you have working for you?
1.3 Number of staff employed? Please provide the split between onsite staff and office staff
1.4 Does your business operate independently? If not, describe the operating relationship you have with third parties.
1.5 What geographic area(s) do you service?
1.6 List the range and type of housing products and/or services provided e.g. affordable homes, high end renovations, landscaping etc?
1.7 Who is your target market e.g. first home buyers, third home buyer, middle income families? Provide an explanation and any research on why this is your target market.
1.8 What do you regard as your point of difference? What sets you apart from your competitors and makes your business the success it is? Why would a customer purchase from you and not another builder?
1.9 What have been your proudest milestone achievements in your business, and why? What have you been most proud of in the past 12 months?
1.10 Please indicate any awards the business has received.
1.11 Have you entered the Probuilder awards previously? If yes, which year/s?
2.1 Vision, Mission and Core Values – Outline your business’ vision, mission and core values and outline the principles and priorities that guide and assist you in achieving business success.
2.2 Leadership – How do you engage and empower your team to deliver your business philosophy on a day to day basis?
2.3 Social responsibility – How are you working with the community to increase their perception of your business as being an ethical and honest organisation?
A business philosophy is a set of beliefs, values and principles enshrined in a company’s way of doing business. This is often presented as a mission statement and/ or company vision and is essentially a company’s operational blueprint. The business philosophy underpins the company’s overall goals and its strategic purpose.
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
Your mission is the everyday extension of your vision. What CAN you and what WILL you do today and everyday to make your vision a reality?
Leadership of course is a subjective construct but effective leadership, however defined is essential to business success. A good definition suggested by American entrepreneur Randy Stocklin goes like this: “Leadership is the ability to help people achieve things they don’t think are possible. Leaders are coaches with a passion for developing people, not players; they get satisfaction from achieving objectives through others. Leaders inspire people through a shared vision and create an environment where people feel valued and fulfilled”.
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
Social responsibility is an increasingly important factor in determining which companies consumers choose to support. This may take the form of embracing responsibility for actions and, through its activities, positively affects the environment, society, consumers, employees, communities, and other stakeholders. It may also mean contributing to the betterment of the local community.
Social responsibility encompasses what a business does internally and externally. Businesses can have a long term impact by specifying responsible products and selecting responsible supply chains, minimising environmental damage, using energy efficient designs, reducing waste during construction and maintaining the safety and welfare of their (and their supply chain's) employees.
In order for social responsible efforts to be durable, they must align with the overall business and not seem like flavour-of-the-month efforts.
3.1 Business Planning
a. Explain how goals and targets at all levels of the business are determined and measured?
b. What issues and considerations are taken into account when developing your strategic and operational plans?
c. Who amongst your team is involved in developing and implementing this plan?
3.2 Marketing - Please provide an overview of your current marketing strategy and how the strategy is applied on a day to day basis.
3.3 Continuous Improvement
a. Give specific examples of your commitment to innovation and continuous improvement that have been implemented in your business in the past 3 years. Include areas such as product, customer service and organisational systems.
b. What have been your biggest challenges, how have you overcome them and what have you learnt along the way?
3.4 Strategic growth – What strategies do you have in place to grow your business and maintain its relevance. Include timelines.
Planning is about encapsulating an organisation’s corporate strategy, values, operating model and overall vision. This may include how it competes and its point of difference in the market and competitive landscape that it operates. These fundamentals can be relatively stable over time and usually undergo a revision only when major changes occur internally such as mergers or acquisitions, or by externally imposed changes such as regulatory changes and other changes which the business has little or no control over e.g. the Global Financial Crisis, introduction of the NBN.
An alarming number of Australian small to medium sized businesses however, continue to fail within the first 3 years of their existence for a range of reasons, not the least being the failure to develop a ‘roadmap’ to drive them toward success.
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
A marketing plan is a comprehensive blueprint (that can form part of your business plan) that outlines a company’s advertising and marketing efforts for accomplishing specific marketing objectives within a set time frame. A marketing plan also includes a description of the current marketing position of a business, a discussion of the target market and a description of the marketing mix that a business will use to achieve its marketing goals.
An effective marketing plan helps to:
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
Continuous improvement can be broadly defined as gradual never-ending change which is focused on increasing the effectiveness and/or efficiency of an organisation to fulfil its policy and objectives. Improvements in business strategy, business results, customer, employee and supplier relationships can be subject to continual improvement. Organisations which apply continuous improvement principles are often referred to as ‘learning organisations’. Put simply, it means ‘getting better all the time’.
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
Strategic business growth focuses on the long term growth of a business. For a business to survive and grow they need to be able to adapt and change to market conditions in response to feedback from customers, and market trends.
4.1 Describe how your business interacts with its customers to achieve genuine customer satisfaction?
4.2 How do you measure the effectiveness of your customer service practices? Please provide current examples.
4.3 Explain how you ensure customer service is maintained. Please provide examples of feedback you have received – positive and constructive.
Business success (or failure) is directly linked to the quality of product or service that is provided to customers. With more ways to reach external customers – phone, websites, email, social media, personal approaches – customers expect businesses to firstly understand their needs and to be more and more responsive to those needs. This puts the onus back onto businesses to continuously evaluate their current levels of service and to have quality policies, systems standards and processes in place to support those fundamentals.
It is important to understand that quality customer service is not only about servicing potential purchasers of your product or service (external) but it is also about how team members actively service their fellow team members (internal).
5.1 Human Resource Management
a. Recruitment – Describe how you recruit and induct (i) employees and (ii) trade contractors into your business.
b. Employees – Provide practical examples of your commitment to recognising and rewarding your employees.
c. Succession Planning – What strategies do you have for the future hiring and development of apprentices, cadets, trainees or other industry workforce entrants? What support is provided for trade contractors to hire apprentices?
d. Performance Management – Detail what formal and informal system(s) of measuring employee and trade contractor work performance that you have in place.
e. Professional Development – What professional development strategies and systems do you have in place to improve employee skill levels? Describe how you assist trade contractors to maintain and/or improve the level of skill required to effectively contribute to your business.
5.2 Business Systems
a. Briefly detail any worksite safety systems that your business has in place, include areas such as:
b. Describe (if any) the level of certification your business has achieved in the above systems (not applicable for small builder)
c. How do you ensure all employees, contractors and suppliers are aware of their legal obligations including WHS?
d. Explain your business systems including use of technology and how the business manages the pre-construction phase of the business.
5.3 Supply Chain Management
a. Describe the business relationship you have established with suppliers and other providers to ensure a continuing level of quality service required for business success.
There are many challenging aspects to the day to day management of a successful building business.
Irrespective of the size of the business, managing finances, human resources, worksite health and safety, environmental control, regulatory constraints, training and professional development and the like can test even the hardiest of souls. Whilst the challenges are apparent, the solutions are not always quite so apparent. However, the introduction of sound, workable policies, systems and practices into the workplace that team members can understand and work with usually lead to acceptance, trust, improved motivation and superior business outcomes.
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
Please ensure supporting evidence (especially WHS) is kept to a manageable level.
Considerations for your entry may include (but are not limited to):
6.1 Have you or any of your senior management had any adverse findings made against them by a court, tribunal or regulatory authority/agency (e.g. the ACCC, ASIC, builders licencing authority, etc) in the last five years including misconduct, dishonesty, or any other similar matter that would contravene the HIA Code of Ethics?
6.2 Provide details of any disputed claims, threatened court actions and/or other litigation with home owners/suppliers/ subcontractors or other parties above $50,000.
6.3 Warranty Insurance
Please provide details on your eligibility for Home Warranty insurance by addressing the following:
a. Scope of cover
b. Turnover allowance
c. Contract value limits.
This information is to be provided in the form of declaration from your warranty insurance provider or a certificate of eligibility.
For builders with an annual turnover of $75 million or more.
For builders with an annual turnover of between $10 million and $75 million.
For builders with an annual turnover of less than $10 million.
Winner: AVID Developments
Winner: St Joseph Affordable Homes
Winner: Ultimo Constructions
Judging is based on the information provided in your written submission, which must address each of the entry criteria.
Judges are looking for factual information about your business backed up by evidence. Give the judges details on what you do and how you do it.
Each statement you make should be backed up with evidence. For example if you mention you have conducted a survey, please provide a copy of the survey as part of your application. Better still, provide the results of the survey too and what action you will be taking as a result.
Don’t forget – Provide as much evidence as possible to show that your business is meeting each of the criteria.
As part of your entry, you need to upload 1-2 images of your team.
Winners in each HIA region are announced at Housing Awards events in late 2024. These winners progress as finalists in the Professional Builder Award categories presented at the 2025 HIA-CSR Australian Housing Awards.
Celebrate the highest level of achievement for the "best of the best" in the residential building industry for award winning designs and builds from across Australia.
Highly-prized recognition within the industry for extensive business and financial management practices.
Celebrating sustainably-built homes, new products and GreenSmart Professionals. Gain recognition for your sustainability building practices.
HIA host the Annual Apprentice Awards to recognise and inspire the next generation of apprentices for the construction industry.
Putting the spotlight on apprentice hosts and the important contribution they make for Australian apprentices.
Recognise businesses and stand-out individuals in the residential building industry who are pushing the boundaries with workmanship, aspirations, and superior business and customer management.