Australia’s housing emergency dominated the agenda at this week’s Financial Review Property Summit in Sydney, where industry leaders warned that even with ambitious targets, the sector lacks the workforce to deliver the homes needed.

Key points from the summit

• Housing supply targets: The federal government’s 1.2 million homes in five years target was broadly welcomed as overdue ambition. Property Council CEO Mike Zorbas praised Housing Minister Clare O’Neil’s “activist” approach, saying for once Australia has a national plan on supply.

• Planning and approvals: NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully accused wealthy anti-development suburbs of shutting out future generations, calling them “almost actively vying to become the first suburbs without children and grandchildren.”

• Labour shortages: ANZ chief economist Richard Yetsenga said even if planning and approvals improve, labour remains the choke point. Australia is short 17,000 electricians for climate-related construction alone.

• Soaring wages: Veteran builder Nigel Satterley revealed site leaders in teams of four tradespeople can now earn up to $500,000 a year, with others on around $250,000, reflecting acute shortages.

• Project delays: Master Builders Australia CEO Denita Wawn reported detached house build times have stretched from 6–9 months to 12–15 months, and high-rise projects from 3 years to 4 years.

• Migration and skills recognition: NAB CEO Andrew Irvine noted that of 700,000 arrivals in 2024, just 5,000 had construction skills. O’Neil put the figure at 10,000, but Irvine said “it should have been 200,000.” Long retraining times for skilled migrants remain a barrier.

• Productivity concerns: Dexus CEO Ross Du Vernet said construction productivity has gone backwards in 30 years, citing unionised sites in Queensland operating at just 2.5 days a week.

Takeaways for builders

• Labour shortages are now the biggest barrier to housing supply, inflating wages and stretching build times.

• Reliance on migration won’t work without faster recognition of overseas skills and targeted recruitment.

• Modular and medium-density housing, along with better use of technology, are seen as essential to lifting productivity.

• The industry broadly supports government ambition, but execution depends on addressing the workforce gap.

Quote of note:
“If you can’t safely, securely house yourself, then we really are, I think, bent and broken as a country.” — Paul Schroder, CEO, AustralianSuper
 

_{This summary is based on an article written by James Thomson and published in The Financial Review titled “Brickies on $500,000? No wonder even CEOs are now angry about housing” on September 5, 2025.}