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Katie Woolf spoke with Master Builders NT CEO Dave Malone · 360 with Katie Woolf

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  Speaker 1: But joining us on the line right now is the
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  Speaker 1: CEO of Master Builders here in the Northern Territory, Dave Malone.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie.
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  Speaker 2: How are you very well? Dave?
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  Speaker 1: How is our industry going at the moment? I know
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  Speaker 1: that you've issued the latest Fidelity Fund WILL numbers and
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  Speaker 1: how are we looking when it comes to building and construction.
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  Speaker 3: Well, when you look at the entire industry, things are
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  Speaker 3: still very much kicking along its drive season, as we
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  Speaker 3: all know, and people are very busy getting projects done.
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  Speaker 3: But what we did find through July so last month
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  Speaker 3: is the housing market really started to turn down and
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  Speaker 3: the number of new homes that were contracted to be
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  Speaker 3: built last month started to cause a little bit of
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  Speaker 3: concern for us.
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  Speaker 2: So what do you reckons cause that?
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  Speaker 1: Dave?
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  Speaker 3: Well, one of the things you and I talked about
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  Speaker 3: some time ago was that at the end of March,
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  Speaker 3: both the federal government and territory government pulled out the
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  Speaker 3: incentives for people to buy a new home. So build
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  Speaker 3: Bonus disappeared, Home Builder disappeared, and people went from being
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  Speaker 3: able to access almost fifty thousand dollars worth of incentives
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  Speaker 3: to zero. And I think that's really put a handbrake
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  Speaker 3: on the industry.
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  Speaker 1: Dave, this is an interesting discussion now for you and
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  Speaker 1: Ida have. I actually caught up with NT Shelter about
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  Speaker 1: half an hour ago and talked about homelessness in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory. And I guess you know plenty of us
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  Speaker 1: when we think of homelessness, we think of people who
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  Speaker 1: we maybe see visibly sleeping on the streets. But at
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  Speaker 1: the moment in the territory, I reckon, we've got a
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  Speaker 1: situation where there are professionals, you know, who are finding
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  Speaker 1: it really hard to find a home. We talk about
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  Speaker 1: growing the population, but if we don't have houses for
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  Speaker 1: people to live in when they're here in the Northern Territory,
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  Speaker 1: then we're not going to be able to grow that population.
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  Speaker 1: And part of that is actually getting into the housing
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  Speaker 1: market yourself and potentially building your first time. And that
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  Speaker 1: is where some of those schemes, like that federal scheme
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  Speaker 1: and also the territory scheme, had such an important role
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  Speaker 1: to play.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely. And you know, it's not like going down to
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  Speaker 3: one of the local dealers and buying a car. Every
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  Speaker 3: single house is handbuilt. It takes time, and the market
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  Speaker 3: itself itself needs a lot of consistency, and so when
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  Speaker 3: you get shocks like large amounts of incentive being pulled
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  Speaker 3: from the market, everybody reacts to that and we move
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  Speaker 3: very quickly. You know, back in March, the private market
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  Speaker 3: was worth about seventy five new homes per month, and
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  Speaker 3: last month it was twenty five homes. So two thirds
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  Speaker 3: of the market disappeared over a period of a few months.
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  Speaker 2: Wow.
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  Speaker 3: And you know, I've had phone calls from builders today
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  Speaker 3: who are telling me that they've got clients waiting to
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  Speaker 3: move into new homes and their couch surfing waiting for
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  Speaker 3: the home to be finished so that they can move
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  Speaker 3: in because they haven't be able to have a someone
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  Speaker 3: to lived for a while. So there is a lot
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  Speaker 3: of pressure in the housing market. You know. I'm sure
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  Speaker 3: that empty shelter knows that way better than me. But
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  Speaker 3: the best way of taking the pressure off is to
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  Speaker 3: build more homes.
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  Speaker 2: Wh's the latest numbers. Just talk us through.
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  Speaker 1: You know how many fidelity certificates were issued for houses,
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  Speaker 1: units and extensions for the month of July.
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  Speaker 3: All right, Well, if we look at July, there was
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  Speaker 3: fourteen new extensions, and they're the big extensions that we
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  Speaker 3: all know about you know, you know, turning an old
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  Speaker 3: pre cyclone home into something pretty special. There was twenty
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  Speaker 3: five homes and only two units in suburban centers right
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  Speaker 3: up and down the track. So that was forty one
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  Speaker 3: certificates for July. And if you look back to March
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  Speaker 3: this year, there was you know, the extensions, there was
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  Speaker 3: twenty three of them that there were seventy five homes
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  Speaker 3: and six units, so substantially more in March. And you know,
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  Speaker 3: I'm the first to admit that that was the last
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  Speaker 3: month of the incentives and people got in at that time.
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  Speaker 3: But what we're seeing is if you don't have those
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  Speaker 3: incentives in the market, then then people just they can't
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  Speaker 3: get into their homes. And what's missed I think a
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  Speaker 3: lot by the community when you hear people like me say, oh,
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  Speaker 3: we need our incentives back, is the average first home
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  Speaker 3: buyer is paying fifty thousand dollars in GST for that home,
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  Speaker 3: but how much taxes on that home? And then they've
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  Speaker 3: got to pay the territory government for stamp duty as well,
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  Speaker 3: so they're getting them paying a huge amount in tax.
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  Speaker 3: So those incentives are just a way of you know,
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  Speaker 3: the community clawing back some of those very large taxes.
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  Speaker 1: It makes it really difficult, you know, for that younger
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  Speaker 1: generation to be able to enter the market, to get
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  Speaker 1: their first time, doesn't it?
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  Speaker 3: It shureed does and it works.
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  Speaker 1: You know.
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  Speaker 3: It's not as if we're talking theoretically right now, are
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  Speaker 3: we we The evidence is there that when you put
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  Speaker 3: those incentives in place, people put their roots down. We
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  Speaker 3: need to keep as many territories as we can here.
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  Speaker 3: We've always talked about population. The key to it is
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  Speaker 3: having consistent public policy. You know, when we first talked
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  Speaker 3: to government about the over a build bonus up here,
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  Speaker 3: they were telling us, look, the market's overheated, we don't
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  Speaker 3: want to contribute to it. Three months later, the market's
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  Speaker 3: a long way from being overheated.
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  Speaker 2: So, Dave, what do you reckon needs to happen here?
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  Speaker 1: I guess you know, some would say, well, this is
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  Speaker 1: just you know, this is just one month of figures
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  Speaker 1: where there's been a downturn. It might be too early
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  Speaker 1: to sort of start jumping up and down. But others
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  Speaker 1: would be saying, well, we could see this coming once
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  Speaker 1: those bonuses ended.
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  Speaker 2: What do you reckon needs to happen here?
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  Speaker 3: I think we just need to get consistent policy. We
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  Speaker 3: need to turn around and say we need territorius here.
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  Speaker 3: The best way of keeping them here is to get
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  Speaker 3: them to put their roots down by owning a home.
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  Speaker 3: We need to add stock as well, So let's put
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  Speaker 3: a consistent incentives package together that sure it supports my industry,
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  Speaker 3: but it supports the whole Northern territory as well.
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  Speaker 1: Well. Dave, it's going to be interesting to see, you know,
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  Speaker 1: whether the government does look to do anything like that.
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  Speaker 1: Is this something that you've been having discussions with them about.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think we needed the data to go back
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  Speaker 3: to them because their view was the market was overheated.
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  Speaker 1: Yep.
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  Speaker 3: I now well and truly have the data, so it's
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  Speaker 3: time to go back.
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  Speaker 1: Well, please keep us in the loop, let us know
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  Speaker 1: how you go with those discussions, and we'll catch up
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  Speaker 1: with you again in the near future.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks Codie, have a good.
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  Speaker 2: Day, you too, Thanks Dave.
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  Speaker 1: That's Dave Malone there, Master Builders NT CEO. And yeah,
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  Speaker 1: as you've heard, you know, for the month of July,
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  Speaker 1: the number of Fidelity fund will certificates that went through
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  Speaker 1: substantially less to what we'd seen, say in March, so
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  Speaker 1: only fourteen new extensions twenty five homes and two units,
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  Speaker 1: and as you've heard there from Dave, that's a big
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  Speaker 1: drop to previous months, and we had spoken to him
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  Speaker 1: about this, the ending of those federal and also Northern
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  Speaker 1: Territory bonuses and what kind of impact.
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  Speaker 2: That would have.
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  Speaker 1: But yeah, I just think that it's really interesting now
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  Speaker 1: at this point, particularly after that discussion a little earlier
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  Speaker 1: this morning as well with Peter McMillan from NT Shelter
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  Speaker 1: about some of the issues that we've got around homelessness,
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  Speaker 1: it does seem as though right now we have got
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  Speaker 1: an issue when it comes to housing in the territory.
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  Speaker 2: In our urban areas.
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  Speaker 1: I know that there is very often and be pretty
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  Speaker 1: safe to say that there are always issues when you
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  Speaker 1: talk about housing in our communities, but we're talking more
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  Speaker 1: so about here in Darwin and our major centers up
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  Speaker 1: this morning at this point, and it does seem as
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  Speaker 1: though there needs to be some movement in this space.
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  Speaker 1: And if you leave it for too long, then you know,
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  Speaker 1: we know that it gets acute. If we are then
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  Speaker 1: talking about people moving to the territory to fill some
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  Speaker 1: of the jobs that we've gotten to boost the population,
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  Speaker 1: you've got to ask yourself, where they're going to be living,