MBA Releases an Updated Building and Construction Forecast Report

Master Builders Australia (MBA) has updated its forecasts for the building and construction industry out to 2027-28. The forecasts aim to provide a deep dive into the current economic conditions of the industry, providing an activity projection over the next five years.

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Master Builders Australia chief executive Denita Wawn says the building and construction industry is the canary in the economic coal mine and activity will be very dependent on the macroeconomic environment.

“Australia’s economy is navigating a challenging period. There is no denying millions of Australians and business owners are feeling the mounting pressure of rising costs of living. However, it is not all doom and gloom,” she says.

“There are good reasons for believing we are overcoming the worst of the challenges if government policies do not hamstring these efforts. Despite an economically volatile 2022-23, the industry has demonstrated its resilience with total construction activity across Australia.”

She adds that non-residential and civil construction sectors have been doing most of the heavy lifting with a 3.8% increase in the construction activity to $226.4 billion but highlights housing to be at the forefront of public debate this year with the common constraint being supply.

Whether be it social and community housing, rental properties to owner-occupiers, MBA forecasts home building activity to be currently declining following a 16.5% decrease in work that began on an estimate of 173,755 new homes during 2022-23 including a further 2.1% predicted decline in the starting of around 170,100 homes in the same period (well under the 200,000 needed per year to meet population growth).

On the other side, Denita says 2023-24 is likely to be quite favourable for the non-residential and civil sectors due to work on transport and social infrastructure investment with building activity likely to hit a peak during 2023-24 when $54.27 billion worth of work is carried out, before then slowly declining again with activity to $51.01 billion in 2027-28.

Image courtesy of Illiya Jokic, Unsplash.

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