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Andrew Dickens: Why now is the time to build · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It is no secret that the construction industry is in
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  Speaker 1: trouble and there's a number of factors. Firstly, the booming
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: construction right after the pandemic years, as money became cheaper
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and cheaper, so more and more projects were undertaken, more
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  Speaker 1: and more builders were hired. We had a residential construction
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  Speaker 1: boom in twenty twenty two, about fifty one thousand consents issued,
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  Speaker 1: driven by surging house prices and historically low interest rates.
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  Speaker 1: But the good times went to last. A new government
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  Speaker 1: came in cut many projects, like the construction of two
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  Speaker 1: and a half thousand state houses, cutting builders launches. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: the supply of cheap money dried up as the Reserve
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  Speaker 1: Bank attacked the recession by raising interest rates. We ended
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  Speaker 1: out with too many builders for fewer projects. As major
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  Speaker 1: infrastructure projects went on hiatus waiting for the government wanting
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  Speaker 1: to spend on them, trained, highly trained construction workers went
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  Speaker 1: looking for work. Most often in Australia, they left. Construction
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  Speaker 1: went into a tailspin. There are claims that we've lost
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  Speaker 1: seventeen thousand workers, but in every cloud you could almost
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  Speaker 1: say there's a silver laning. A new report says that
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: construction firms are now offering large discounts to avoid collapse.
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  Speaker 1: Some are offering discounts of up to fifty percent to
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  Speaker 1: keep their workers busy. These are in the firms that
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  Speaker 1: are left. Six hundred and eighty seven firms have been
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  Speaker 1: liquidated this past year. It's a threefold increase in just
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  Speaker 1: three years. It hasn't been pleasant. The firms that are
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  Speaker 1: left and are still doing the business should be hailed
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  Speaker 1: as heroes prepared to work through the bad times rather
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  Speaker 1: than cutting and running. And can I just say to you,
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  Speaker 1: if you're thinking about a commercial residential bill, can I
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  Speaker 1: suggest there is no better time that now. You'll never
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  Speaker 1: get a better deal going forward. And maybe, just maybe
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  Speaker 1: we might be able to work our way out of
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  Speaker 1: a construction bust, which was all our making in the
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  Speaker 1: first place. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: listen live to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays,
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  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.