Victorian registered builder numbers at 12-month low as 24,000 jobs go: Victorian Building Commission

The number of registered domestic builders declined for the fifth straight month in September to 14,414, the lowest number since September 2011, when there were 14,429 builders registered with the Victoria’s Building Commission.

Since May more 400 builders have not renewed their registrations.

The decline in the number of registered residential builders come on the back of  recently published ABS quarterly data showing that nearly 24,000 jobs have gone from the industry in the first six months of the year.

The total number of people employed in the industry has fallen from a peak of 197,800 in the December quarter to 173,900 in the three months to June 2012, with the building industry’s contribution to state employment having fallen from 6.9% to 6%.

The building industry has been hit with a spate of high-profile company collapses this year, including most recently Victorian-based New Dimension Homes, which entered into administration at the end of August, impacting about 50 home owners, and earlier this year the coll apes of Bina Construction, based in Caufield, and Australian Property and Construction, based in Mitcham.

Builders with a national presence that have collapsed include St Hilliers Construction, Kell & Rigby and Reed Construction, with SmartCompany counting 80 building or construction firms entering administration, liquidation or being hit by winding-up notices in the month of March alone.

Victorian building industry employment ('000)

Source: ABS

Figures released by the Building Commission in August for the 2011-12 financial year reveal that the value of building permit activity dropped 4.5% to $23.2 from $24.3 billion recorded in the previous financial year.

Permits for the construction of houses fell 9.9% to $11.8 billion, while permits for the construction of apartments jumped from 17.6% to $4 billion.

The only region to record a notable rise in building approvals was inner Melbourne, the focus of most high-rise and high-density projects, with the value of approvals increasing 8.5% to $10.8 billion.

In outer Melbourne the value of permits fell 17.9% to $7.6 billion.

Photograph courtesy of Property Bloom.