How Long Does It Takes To Build A House? Construction Times Are At A 10-year High
High building materials costs and a labour shortage have combined to worsen Australia’s chronic housing undersupply
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The average time it takes to build a new house in Australia has risen to its highest level in more than a decade, according to peak industry body Master Builders Australia. Average building times have blown out from 8.7 months in 2020-21 to 11.7 months in 2022-23 amid labour shortages, higher costs of materials, and a slew of building companies going bust.
The average length of time between approval and completion of townhouses has also expanded from 12.7 months in 2020-21 to 14.9 months today. Apartment building times hit a record high of 30.6 months in 2020-21 but this has now moderated to 28.8 months. Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn said this was still far too long. “When our output of new apartments was at record levels back in 2015-16, it took just 21 months to complete a build,” she said.
The cost of building materials initially rose in the period immediately after COVID, with shipping costs exploding and then global inflation pushing prices even further. “Since the pandemic, building product prices have increased 33 percent,” Ms Wawn said. “While we are seeing a stabilisation of some building product prices primarily around steel, some products such as cement continue to escalate.”
Rising costs are a key reason why many small building companies have become insolvent. The fixed-price contracts they signed with some homeowners prior to the materials pricing surge meant many builders were forced to complete projects at a loss or on a very small margin.
But Ms Wawn said the industry’s challenges go far beyond temporary COVID-related impacts with a “formidable set of impediments in the form of planning delays, insufficient land release and red tape”. As a result, housing construction has not kept pace with Australia’s traditionally strong population growth, leading to a critical point today. Master Builders forecasts that new home starts will decline by 2.1 percent to about 170,100 in 2023-24, which it says is well below the 200,000 needed per year to meet population growth. Nerida Conisbee, the chief economist at Ray White, said the population rose by 500,000 people in 2022, which meant 200,000 new homes were needed but only 172,000 were built.
Amid surprisingly strong property price growth in 2023 and a national rental crisis, the Federal Government has set a target of building 1.2 million homes over five years from 2024. However, many industry insiders question how this is going to get done. Ms Conisbee said the closest Australia has ever gone to building 1.2 million homes over five years was in 2015-20 when 1.05 million homes were built.
“This was a period in which we saw the biggest influx of Chinese capital ever recorded and there were thousands of apartments built across our CBDs and close to universities,” Ms Conisbee said. “The Chinese capital has mostly evaporated and there is nothing as significant to replace it. Ultimately, most of the money will come from households, whether in the form of people buying homes to live in or to invest in. The problem right now is high interest rates are preventing many from being able to buy new homes. Monetary policy is choking housing supply.”
Additionally, Ms Conisbee said an entrenched NIMBY (not in my backyard) attitude makes it tough for local councils to approve medium to high-density projects. “There continues to be a resistance to densities in our suburbs and this makes it difficult for town planners to get projects approved,” Ms Conisbee said. “Fortunately this is one area that the Government can more easily control and we have seen the announcement of many rezonings across Australia in recent months.”
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Château d’Ansembourg and the adjacent Domaine du Presbytère d’Ansembourg are on the market for €37.5 Million
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The listing comprises the ancient Château d’Ansembourg and the adjacent Domaine du Presbytère d’Ansembourg, which are within central Luxembourg’s Valley of the Seven Castles.
Château d’Ansembourg is one of the seven castles the valley is named for and is regarded as one of the country’s most important privately owned châteaus, according to Ignace Meuwissen, the founder of Whisper Auctions, who is handling the sale.
The castle sits at the heart of an almost 500-acre estate overlooking the picturesque village of Ansembourg, and records of its existence date to 1135.
Domaine du Presbytère d’Ansembourg, meanwhile, is a more than 110-acre estate comprising a former presbytery, a chapel dating to 1678, a historic school site, forests and meadows.
“Properties of this calibre rarely become available,” Meuwissen said.
“What is being offered today is far more than a chateau. The combination of nearly nine centuries of documented history, 245 hectares of land and a unique location in the Valley of the Seven Castles creates an opportunity that is exceptionally rare within Europe. Opportunities of this scale and heritage value are seldom brought to market and are often preserved within families for generations.”
The properties are being marketed through a “semi-off-market sales process,” with limited information and marketing materials publicly available, and access to the properties is reserved for a small number of pre-qualified candidates, according to Meuwissen.
Both estates have been privately occupied by the same owner, whom Meuwissen declined to identify. Mansion Global could not confirm who the seller is.
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