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{{propApi.successMessage}} {{region}} Change location83,000 more tradies urgently needed
83,000 more tradies urgently needed
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The Housing Industry Association (HIA) has released a report that warns that trade shortages present a significant threat to achieving the Housing Accord’s target of building 1.2 million homes over the next five years.
Australia does not currently have enough tradies to build the number of homes needed to house the population and take pressure off housing costs. The report titled All Hands on Deck presents a plan to grow the construction workforce and enable the Housing Accord target to be achieved.
“The residential building industry currently employs approximately 278,000 tradies across the twelve key trade occupations required for home building. The trades workforce needs to grow by at least 30 per cent to meet the Accord’s goals. That is over 83,000 additional tradies.
“To achieve the target, an average of 240,000 homes must be built annually—a level that has only been approached twice in Australia’s history.
“This means a significant boost in the number of chippies, sparkies, plumbers, brickies and concreters, to get these much-needed homes out of the ground and to lock up.
“Despite efforts to boost the domestic trades workforce, significant challenges remain. Creating career opportunities for the local workforce should be a priority, however this alone will not solve to the tradie shortage.
“Skilled migration is the other key lever that the government can pull in the short term to address the immediate shortage of tradies.
“The time for business as usual solutions has passed, and we need ‘all hands on deck’ and coordinated government actions to address the chronic shortage of tradies,” concluded Mr Murray.
For more information please contact:
Geordan Murray
Executive Director – Future Workforce
P: 02 6245 1379
M: 0438 103 651
E: g.murray@hia.com.au
Signs of a pulse in Canberra building approvals
Building approvals for dwellings in Canberra for the year to the end of March have shown some signs that the market may be turning the corner but still remain well below government targets.
Low volume of home building but labour shortages linger
“Australia has just seen its two weakest years of new home commencements in over a decade, meaning these ongoing shortages of skilled trades are not being caused by home building activity,” stated HIA Chief Economist, Tim Reardon.
Building approvals strengthen in March quarter
“There were 48,620 new homes approved for construction in the first quarter of 2025, up by 20.8 per cent on a year earlier,” stated HIA Senior Economist Tom Devitt.
New Government must put housing as first order of business
“The Housing Industry Association (HIA) calls on the newly elected Federal Government to make housing a first-order priority from day one, any delay or political grandstanding will only deepen the nation’s housing crisis,” HIA Managing Director Jocelyn Martin said today.