Demand for renovations cooling
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that over the last year, private sector house approvals are up, but dwellings excluding houses are down, which according to one ‘hire-a-tradie’ website, is having a knock-on effect on hourly rates for tradies.
Tradies, according to ServiceSeeking.com.au, have experienced a 4 per cent rise of hourly rates over the last year, but over the quarter have only seen a rise of 1 per cent and building approvals have fallen over the last two months.
These factors have ServiceSeeking.com.au’s CEO Jeremy Levitt saying that demand for tradies is cooling, and as a result has seen a decline in hourly rates.
“Compared to the quarterly change in hourly rates at the same time last year, we can see that demand for tradies is falling off,” Mr Levitt said.
“There is a cooling in renovation activity and a softening in tradies prices. Last year alone saw New South Wales experience a 9 per cent hike in hourly rates, and a 5 per cent rise across Australia. This year shows a different story.”
Eight popular trades, as identified by ServiceSeeking.com.au, have released data based on a sample of 52,000 quotes on their platform:
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