The insane amount of tradies needed for Albo to meet his farcical goal of 1.2million new homes in the next five years – and the ‘solution’ that’s only going to make the housing crisis WORSE
Australia needs 90,000 more homes over the next 90 days to meet the Albanian government’s “impossible” new target of building 1.2 million new homes in five years, the construction industry has warned.
Major construction industry groups have labeled the federal government’s plan – which would see the country build 60,000 new homes every quarter from July 1 – as unrealistic.
One solution would be for Australia to boost immigration and accelerate skilled trades, suggested Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia.
Ms Warn said she was concerned ‘there is no way… that we can get 90,000 workers in three months unless we make a radical change in the way we look at our migration system’.
An additional 90,000 tradies are needed by July 1 if the government is to achieve its ambitious target of building 1.2 million homes within five years
Recognizing the qualifications of tradies from other countries should be easier and cheaper, Ms Wawn said.
“We know that there are a large number of tradies in this country who cannot get their licenses recognized because it is too expensive and too cumbersome for them,” she said in an interview with Sunrise.
“We need to focus on those who are currently in the country because their skills are not being recognized.”
Ms Wawn also said a huge push is needed to equip Australians with skills and encourage them to work in the trade sector.
“We are mainly focusing on school activities, but also for those who want to make a career change and look into trading,” Ms Wawn said.
“Third, as an industry we must maintain current traditions and recall those that have decided enough is enough.”
But she acknowledged that finding 90,000 trades in the next 90 days is unrealistic.
“I think this figure reflects the difficulty we will face if we do not solve the shortage of traditional housing and meet the agreed target of 1.2 million homes over five years,” she said.
“The clock starts ticking on July 1 and we have a huge problem that needs to be solved.”
BuildSkills Australia admitted its target of 90,000 trades within 90 days is unrealistic
The national housing crisis has resulted in the rise of prefabricated homes (pictured) that are faster and cheaper to build
Ms Wawn remained hopeful that the Government’s target of 1.2 million new homes by 2029 could be achieved.
“We need to focus on how we can actually get there,” she said. ‘The question is actually: how do we actually recruit more people to our sector?’
Robert Sobyra, executive director of research and planning at BuildSkills Australia, said finding skilled labor will be the biggest supply-side barrier in tackling the housing supply crisis.
“Returning the housing market to a healthy state will require a significant increase in the national housing completion rate,” he said.
“While there are plenty of hurdles to overcome to achieve this goal, the biggest supply-side barrier will be labor.”
Housing Minister Julie Collins said while the government’s housing target was ambitious, it was continuing with its work.
“We know we have a lot of work to do,” she told Sky News.
‘We work throughout the government. I know that the skills ministers had a meeting just over two weeks ago where they talked about the skills needed to meet housing demand in Australia and the challenges we currently have.”
To meet the federal government’s target, approximately 60,000 new homes must be built per quarter
An increase in the number of modular or prefabricated homes, common in Japan and Germany, could accelerate housing supply.
Australian housing giant Mirvac is among developers trialling modular housing in response to the crisis.
“We managed to make the construction of those homes watertight within 12 weeks,” Stuart Penklis, CEO of Development at Mirvac, told Nine News.
He added that modular homes do not come with some of the challenges of traditional construction, such as supply chain shortages and severe weather disruptions.
Industry and Science Minister Ed Husic added that governments are working together “to look seriously at modular housing.”
“Other countries are getting their act together on modular housing and are seeing great jobs and great new homes – we want to be able to do that here on the coast,” Mr Husic said.
The construction industry hopes to boost its workforce with more skilled migrants and entice school leavers to enter the profession