Tradies are scared to turn up for construction work as new restrictions put the brakes on Victorians’ bids for $25,000 HomeBuilder grants.
Tradies scared and confused by new rules governing the construction industry are planning to stay home throughout Melbourne’s stage four lockdown for fear of being fined.
The revelation is a spanner in the works for the federal government’s $680m HomeBuilder scheme, which has finally begun taking applications from Victorians after a web portal designed for the program went online Monday night.
State Revenue Office figures show about 14,600 Victorians have registered interest in the scheme in the past month.
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The web portal is accessed through the SRO website and is the only way in this state to make a formal application for the $25,000 grants for new houses and substantive renovations.
However, it comes more than a month after Tasmanians began applying via a paper-based system that commenced on July 6.
Master Builders Association of Victoria chief executive Rebecca Casson said the portal’s launch was a “positive” for builders “in a tough few weeks for our industry”.
“This program will help stimulate interest and then action in our industry,” Ms Casson said.
“It will specifically have an immediate effect in regional Victoria where building and construction is still operating at full capacity, and our regional members have reported huge interest in clients taking up the grant since the announcement of the program.”
She added that while construction could commence during Melbourne’s stage four lockdown, it would continue at a diminished capacity.
Some tradies are now too scared of fines to turn up to work.
Nostra Homes builder Anthony Caruana said he expected to commence construction on just 25 per cent of the homes he had planned to before the September end of the shutdown.
“There are tradies throwing in the towel, saying it’s too hard and they are just going to stay home for the six weeks,” Mr Caruana said.
“They are scared. They are worried they will be on site and get a fine.”
He added that about 10 per cent of the mostly first and second-home buyers who had contacted his business with plans to capitalise on HomeBuilder’s $25,000 grants had already pulled the pin as a result of the six-week stage four lockdown affecting their employment.
Urban Development Institute of Australia Victorian chief executive Danni Hunter said the restrictions would be “problematic for small-scale projects throughout the next five weeks”.
However, the industry remained committed to ensuring the lockdown lasted six weeks and not longer.
“While a massive improvement on the initial restrictions, the limitation on tradespeople being able to only go to three sites per week will significantly hamper the home building industry’s ability to continue functioning,” Ms Hunter said.
New restrictions governing Victoria’s development industry came into force at 11.59pm Friday, including limiting tradespeople to working on just three new builds a week and capping workforces on new house construction at five people.
Larger projects, above three storeys, have their workforces capped at 25 per cent of their typical numbers.
Renovations must stop unless the site is unsafe for home inhabitants.
Renovations at inhabited homes must stop if they are safe for habitation.
The HomeBuilder scheme is available for anyone building a new home or substantially renovating an existing one and who signs contracts between June 4 and December 31 this year.
New builds must be priced below $750,000 and renovations must be between $150,000 and $750,000. Those earning above certain income thresholds are also excluded from access to the scheme.
The State Revenue Office commissioner has already exercised his discretion to provide Victorians with six months to commence construction, instead of the three month timeline in place elsewhere in the nation.
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