With increases in building trade costs one of the main contributors to the rising price of new homes over the past three years, it is welcome news that the upward pressure on trade prices has all but disappeared as the industry goes through the current consolidation period.
Figures released this week in the HIA-Austral Bricks Trades Report showed that after a slight rise in the previous quarter, average trade prices across Australia fell by 0.2 per cent in the three months to December 2005.
Trade prices were nevertheless still 0.9 per cent higher than a year earlier.
Building industry body, HIA, said that while further easing in prices and improvements in availability is expected throughout 2006, the current pace of building and the subsequent build up in housing demand suggests that this could well be the calm before the next storm.
Bricklayers, carpenters, joiners, painters and plumbers were still in short supply in the December 2005 quarter. However availability picked up for electricians, landscapers, plasterers, roofers and ceramic tilers.
