Reasons Australia’s Construction Industry Continues to Boom
The construction industry in Australia is valued at about $173 billion annually, and this number has been steadily increasing for more than a year. Most sectors in the industry, including the housing and renovation sector, have seen an increase in their Performance of Construction Index (PCI).
In fact, the PCI from January and February has shown increased growth in several construction sectors, and it’s expected to continue its steady growth for the next few years.
The boom has created a surge of employment, including laborers, managers, architects and even building certifiers in all sorts of areas, including residential, retail, commercial, aged care, hospitals, sporting complexes and industrial.
Why is Australia seeing such a construction boom? A variety of factors influence the growth, including:
Massive Surge in Renovation Projects
The construction industry’s growth in Australia is largely fueled by the surges in renovation projects. Australians working in the renovation and regenerative sector can expect an increase in projects to continue until 2023.
The value of these projects is expected to rise to about $35 billion, not too surprising considering renovation work for residential areas has reached an all-time high for the past 10 years, at $6.6 billion just last year.
Green Energy Investments
Green energy initiatives such as the Murra Warra wind farm also generate a massive amount of construction projects in Australia. Just the first stage of this renewable energy development has contributed about $320 million to the construction industry.
The Murra Warra project’s first stage will involve 61 wind turbines and 150 employees to complete the construction, and there will be further stages requiring similar crews to follow.
The Murra Warra project is expected to be up and running by mid-2019, but it is far from the only green energy investment in Australia that is supporting the construction industry.
Residential Demand
The PCI data for February 2018 recorded strong growth and pace at 61.8 for housing construction,11.8 points higher than the reading standard, illustrating the increased residential demand in Australia.
Likewise, the apartment building sector also saw an increase in its PCI with a value of 56.9. To support this data, an increase in customer enquiries and first-home buyer activities have been noted by house-building respondents in February 2018.
As a side bonus for house-renting individuals, the rise in housing demands have led to the lowest rental rates in 24 years as new apartments are brought into the rental markets. Several more new apartment phases are also still underway at this time to support Australia’s housing demands.
Bauxite Mine
The Amrun project was first announced in 2015, and the project involves the bauxite mine construction, the processing capabilities and any additional port facilities required to extract, produce and ship bauxite at the fully operational Amrun bauxite mine by the end of 2019.
The project director from Rio Tinto has initially invested almost $2.6 billion to fund the supplies and pay for more than 1,400 individuals’ employment throughout the entire project.
As of December 2017, the construction works for the Amrun project is only 51-percent completed, so you can expect more funds to go into the construction industry this year and the next!
Image via Pixabay CC0 License
