Shortages of tradesmen in Adelaide

Adelaide tradesmen are the rarest species across the country with the shortage bordering on “critical short supply”. The December HIA-Austral Bricks Trades Report rates Adelaide’s trade availability just short of “critical short supply” and the worst region in Australia.

HIA regional director Robert Harding said the dramatic shortages could only result in higher housing prices. “Trade shortages are putting upward price pressures on the construction of new houses and this only further emphasised the need for immediate measures to address skill shortages,” he said.

New houses are often the entry point for new homebuyers and so represented a particularly fragile outcome, Real Estate Institute SA president Robin Turner said. “It is good that (trades) are in demand and getting better rates, but unfortunately it is going to put upwards pressure on the price of housing, especially new homes,” he said.

“But this is the… price we pay for a prosperous economy. The piper has to be paid. In this case, it is the brick layers and the tilers.”

The trades most in short supply in the December quarter were electrical, roofing and plastering.

However, the cost of bricklayers and joiners has increased more than any other trade over the past 12 months. Bricklayers are now 12.2 per cent higher than December 2006, while joiners are 11.5 per cent up.

Plumbers remain in very short supply across the country, with costs rising 5.4 per cent over the year.