Housing costs up – affordability down
Rising construction costs for new home building in Brisbane combined with lower weekly earnings have resulted in a decrease in affordability for potential home buyers.
Building costs increased at twice the rate of the average weekly wage and the Consumer Price Index. Forecasts are for future rises in costs to lower affordability even further, as wages fail to keep pace with construction costs.
In addition, proposed changes to energy efficiency and water saving methods for new domestic housing will directly impact on the cost of a new house, making building even less affordable.
"These changes would result in an additional cost of nearly $7,000 to a new home, an increase of 3%", the Costing Division Manager of Reed Construction Data, Mr Mike Bartlett, said.
Government incentives would need to be retained to help reduce this financial burden on the average homebuyer.
In analysing the breakdown of the cost of building a new house it was found that, of the total cost, materials represented the largest portion, 38%, followed by labour costs, 26%, with professional fees and government charges including the GST accounting for 21%.
The QMBA/Cordell Housing Cost Index survey monitors the cost of new housing construction in South east Queensland.
Costs were based on a new single-storey four bedroom family home with two bathrooms and double garage, typical of many homes built in South East Queensland.
The survey was conducted by Reed Construction Data in conjunction with Master Builders Queensland.
For more information contact Mike Bartlett, Costing Division Manager, Reed Construction Data. Phone (02) 9934 5555. Email: info@rcd.com.au