Trade prices across Australian residential construction have risen 6.6 per cent over the past year, with shortages showing up in all thirteen trade categories tracked by the Housing Industry Association, according to the September quarter edition of its HIA Trades Report. The squeeze is worst for bricklaying, ceramic tiling, carpentry and roofing, and hardest of all in Regional Queensland, Regional South Australia and Perth.
The findings were reported by Sourceable, which covered the release of the quarterly report. The HIA survey asks home builders how easily they can get hold of key residential trades, and turns the answers into a single index.
That index improved to -0.50 in the September quarter, up from -0.59 in the June quarter. Any reading below 0.0 means a shortage. So the needle moved, but barely, and it’s still sitting well inside shortage territory.
Brickies, tilers and chippies still the hardest to get
Shortages turned up in every one of the thirteen categories the report covers. The most acute were bricklaying, ceramic tiling, “other trades”, carpentry and roofing.
Price pressure didn’t land evenly either. The report flags particularly high increases for plastering, ceramic tiling, general building, plumbing, roofing and site preparation.
Tiling is the standout. It’s named in both lists, scarcest and dearest at the same time, which is what you’d expect when a wet-trade with a long training tail runs short right at the fitout end of a job. Roofing does the same double, and that one bites earlier in the program: no roof, no lock-up, no start for the internal trades queued behind it.
For anyone pricing work, the index is less useful than the 6.6 per cent. That’s the number to run your labour cost base against when you’re quoting a job that won’t start for six months.
Regional Queensland, Regional SA and Perth feel it worst
Shortages showed up across all regions, the report found, but were particularly severe in Regional Queensland, Regional South Australia and Perth.
Regional work carries its own maths. A subbie who has to travel is pricing travel, and when there are three builders chasing the same crew in a town with one tiling outfit, the scarcity gets priced in before anyone’s picked up a trowel.
Why the slowdown won’t free up subbies until 2027
The broader market has been going the other way. Sourceable reports Australia’s property market has come under pressure across 2026 on the back of the Iran War, rising interest rates and tax changes in the Federal Budget, after new home building recovered from the middle of 2024 and built momentum through 2025.
HIA Senior Economist Tom Devitt said the persistence of shortages reflects a strong pipeline of projects in new housing construction, which is holding up demand for trades despite recent housing market weakness.
He also said the outlook for new home building has deteriorated in recent months, with fewer home building contracts being signed. That still doesn’t translate into easier hiring any time soon.
The reason is the lag. New home building contracts signed today will generally require trades for at least one year, Devitt said, so the current slowdown in new contracts is unlikely to deliver any easing in shortages until at least the second half of 2027. The work already sold has to get built first.
And residential isn’t the only bidder. Devitt said demand for trades will be further supported by other sectors including home renovations, public infrastructure and data centres, all of which want the same sparkies, plumbers and concreters.
Migration “must complement, rather than replace” apprentice training
On policy, Devitt welcomed the federal government’s decision to prioritise construction workers, alongside doctors and nurses, for skilled migration.
“The Australian Government’s decision, announced by the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Bourke, MP, to prioritise skilled construction workers alongside doctors and nurses for skilled migration is a welcome recognition of the importance of residential construction to the national economy,” Devitt said.
“With unemployment remaining low and the industry facing a significant shortage of skilled workers, migration has an important role to play in expanding Australia’s capacity to build homes.”
He was equally clear that it can’t be the whole answer.
“This must complement, rather than replace, continued investment in developing Australia’s domestic workforce, including greater support for apprentices, training providers and the businesses that employ them and provide them with onsite experience and supervision,”
Devitt said.
That last clause is the one small employers will read twice. The businesses carrying apprentices are the ones supplying the supervision and the site hours, and they’re doing it while their own labour costs climb 6.6 per cent a year.
“Australia needs to expand its construction workforce to meet the nation’s housing needs. A temporary slowing in the growth of residential construction should not distract from that long term objective,” Devitt said.
What to watch
The next HIA Trades Report lands in the new year, and the number worth watching isn’t the headline index. It’s whether contract signings keep sliding, because that’s what sets the hiring market a year out.
If you’re a sub, the shortage is still doing the negotiating for you into 2027 on Devitt’s read. If you’re a builder putting a fixed price on a job that starts next winter, the labour line is the one moving under you, and a quote written on today’s rates for a start twelve months away is wearing that risk.
Frequently asked questions
Which trades are hardest to find right now?
Bricklaying, ceramic tiling, carpentry and roofing are the tightest, according to HIA’s September quarter Trades Report, with Regional Queensland, Regional South Australia and Perth worst affected.
When will trade shortages ease?
HIA senior economist Tom Devitt says shortages are unlikely to ease before the second half of 2027, because new home building contracts signed today still need trades for at least a year.
Will skilled migration fix the shortage?
Devitt welcomed the federal government’s move to prioritise construction workers for skilled migration, but said it must complement, not replace, continued investment in training apprentices.
Sourced from Sourceable, Housing Industry Association. Original article.
