05 Aug 2026 - Behind the Facade

Housing targets assume people who are already booked.

August commentary returned to a simple point: Australia can approve more homes than it can currently build. The constraint sits in crews, completions and the jobs those crews are already on.

ABS approvals for 2025-26 came in higher than the year before. That is not the same as being on track for 240,000 completed homes a year. Some of the gap is finance. Some of it is cost. A large part of it is people.

Residential labour was still in shortage in mid-year trades reporting, even in a patchy housing market. The same ticketed people get called for hospital stages, shutdowns and apartment envelopes.

Hire earlier than the peak. Keep apprentices on jobs that teach them something. Do not take a second package that needs the same four people as the first.

What not to do

Do not staff a company to a national target. Staff it to the jobs that have a start date and a superintendent who answers the phone.