Calls for HomeBuilder stimulus to be extended for 12 months

Опубликованно 29.08.2020 21:45

Master Builders Australia is calling on the Morrison Government to extend the stimulus measure for an extra 12 months, with CEO Denita Wawn describing it as “the most effective government stimulus measure in a decade”.

But she explained that despite the “undeniable success” of the measure, her organisation was predicting a 27 per cent fall in homebuilding activity for 2020/21 compared to the previous year.

“This will be calamitous for many of the nearly 370,000 home building businesses that are vital to local economies and communities throughout Australia unless the Government steps in with (an) extension of HomeBuilder and other stimulus measures,” Ms Wawn said.

She said a hypothetical HomeBuilder 2.0 would require a $1.3 billion investment but would “return a boost to GDP of up to $4.5 billion, create more than 4500 additional new jobs and result in the construction of more than 6000 new homes”.

NSW builder Nathan Chamings, who lives and works in the Albury-Wodonga region on the Victorian border, is one of countless business owners to have been hit by the economic fallout of COVID-19, finding himself out of pocket by thousands of dollars since the pandemic began.

However, he told news.com.au the HomeBuilder and JobKeeper schemes had sparked a boom in his area at least.

“In this region it is probably the busiest it has been in a long time, because there’s that sense of reassurance with that $25,000 grant. Inquiries for new home builds have gone through the roof,” he said.

“In the Albury-Wodonga region, people were hesitant to sign a contract in March, but now if they’ve got that grant, they are happy to move forward and make the most of it.

“I’m not talking about developers building multiple homes, it’s more first homebuyers and people like that who have still got a secure job and are keen to get into a new house.”

He said when the pandemic first hit, sales declined as locals were “scared” about how the economy and job market would be affected, but that there had been a noticeable difference made by the introduction of HomeBuilder and other stimulus measures such as JobKeeper.

However, he said the uncertainty posed by the Victorian border lockdown had impacted his business a “fair bit”.

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NSW builder Nathan Chamings is one of many business owners to be hit by the economic impacts of COVID-19.

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“We live in NSW and the company is based in NSW but we do a lot of work in Victoria so it slowed everything down including deliveries and it made it harder to get people (including the owners) through to the site,” he said.

Mr Chamings, who has three employees, said it had also been difficult to arrange paperwork for permits to allow them to cross between the borders, although the pain had been lessened through the use of the new WorkApp platform which was originally created to help tradies hire casual workers in their vicinity.

“I can see the benefits for when we have work outside Albury-Wodonga where we don’t have as many contacts – you can jump on the app and look for tradies or labourers or whoever you need which makes it easier to manage projects,” he said, adding it was especially helpful during COVID-19 as it allowed workers to be hired for small jobs without face-to-face contact.

WorkApp CEO and founder Shane Wallace said it had taken off during the pandemic as it cut out the “expensive middle man” just as fewer businesses were able to absorb the costs of job ads or commissions on sales.

“COVID has led to the biggest number of WorkApp downloads, 3000 in a day with nearly 200,000 people using the app,” he said.

“Month on month we’re seeing the numbers double.

“The digital landscape continues to change the way we do almost everything, and it’s these platforms people turn to in turbulent times.”

Категория: Бизнес