Michael Sukkar MP

HOMEBUILDER CONTINUES TO DRIVE RECORD CONSTRUCTION

THE HON MICHAEL SUKKAR MP
Assistant Treasurer
Minister for Housing
Minister for Homelessness, Social and Community Housing

MEDIA RELEASE

20 May 2021

HOMEBUILDER CONTINUES TO DRIVE RECORD CONSTRUCTION 

HomeBuilder is driving a record year of housing starts and continues to secure jobs in the construction sector. 

This year is set to be the single biggest year for detached house commencements, with all states and territories seeing a boost with the support of HomeBuilder.

The 2020/21 financial year will produce a record level of 137,170 detached starts, an increase of 34.2 per cent on the previous year.

This is almost 17 per cent higher than the peak of the previous boom in 2018 according to the Housing Industry Association’s (HIA) National Outlook released today. This pipeline of work will keep tradies in jobs and the sector active throughout 2022.

Minister for Housing Michael Sukkar said the HomeBuilder program played a key role in supporting the housing industry and the economy more broadly during the height of the pandemic.

“These results speak for themselves. HomeBuilder not only saved construction jobs during the worst of the COVID-19 recession, it has helped underpin Australia’s strong economic recovery,” Minister Sukkar said.

 HIA Economist Angela Lillicrap said that this level of activity is not likely to be seen again for many years, if not decades.

“The combination of factors that have led to this boom is unprecedented and are driven by HomeBuilder and low interest rates as well as a change in consumer preference away from high density areas,” said Angela Lillicrap.

 “This large volume of work will ensure that the industry remains very active through until at least the second half of 2022.”

 With this record volume of work under construction, HIA anticipates 121,000 starts in 2021/22, which would be the third strongest year on record.