20 January 2021

Australia’s tradies building our comeback with HomeBuilder

Helping Australians get into a home of their own and supporting tradies’ jobs are both key priorities for the Morrison Government as we build our comeback from the COVID-19 recession.

Latest figures released today show, that as at 31 December 2020, over 75,000 households have applied for a HomeBuilder grant, with 80 per cent of applications to construct a new home.

Tradies and home buyers in every state and territory has benefitted from these HomeBuilder applications;

 

New Build

Rebuild

Total

New South Wales

8,714

4,973

13,687

Victoria

17,382

4,213

21,595

Queensland

13,507

3,106

16,613

Western Australia

11,141

783

11,924

South Australia

5,949

1,479

7,428

Tasmania

1,521

291

1,812

ACT

1,371

520

1,891

Northern Territory

178

15

193

Total

59,763

15,380

75,143

 

As a key driver of our comeback, Treasury estimates that HomeBuilder will now support up to $18 billion of residential construction projects.

HomeBuilder was designed immediately to inject confidence and encourage buyers back into the market to offset the devastating effects of the pandemic on the residential construction industry.

On all counts HomeBuilder has more than achieved this objective, and it has kept hundreds of thousands of tradies in work who would have otherwise been facing the unemployment queue.

This is a phenomenal outcome for our tradies and for our economy at a time it needs it most.

To maintain this momentum in Australia’s economic comeback, the Morrison Government has announced HomeBuilder will be extended until 31 March 2021.

For all new build contracts signed between 1 January 2021 and 31 March 2021:

  • Eligible owner-occupier purchasers will receive a $15,000 grant; and
  • The property price caps for new builds in New South Wales and Victoria have been increased to $950,000 and $850,000 respectively.

In addition, the construction commencement deadline has been extended from three months to six months for all eligible contracts signed on or after 4 June 2020.

Extending HomeBuilder ensures there will be a steady pipeline of construction activity through to 2022 to lock in this momentum.

More information on the HomeBuilder programme can be found on the Treasury website.