The cost of building a home in Australia has gone up significantly over the last 2 years, especially due to the recent global pandemic COVID-19. The consequent disruptions to global supply chains made it worse. And even though Australians are returning to normalcy (opening borders, holding events, returning to work), there are no signs of these costs changing for the foreseeable future.
For buyers (and especially first-home buyers), this is incredibly challenging, in an environment where the law was already stacked against them.
Costs of Building a Home in 2022
The average cost of building a home according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) lies at $1393.55 per square meter (sqm). Although this cost can be affected by many factors which could increase or decrease it as it omits the amount of design, cost blowouts, planning permits, etc. The average Australian building spans about 229.8sqm which would amount to $320,238 of costs to build.
Tara Wolf, the director of Wolf Architects, states the cost of building an architecturally composed house begins at a minimum of $3000 per sqm and ranges up to $5382 per sqm or $50,000 per Australian house square (9.29 sqm).
Prices of building homes in Australia also differ from state to state. Below are the average costs according to each state.
| State | Price |
| Canberra (Australian Capital Territory) | $440,000 |
| South Australia | $275,000 |
| Queensland | $289,000 |
| Tasmania | $285,000 |
| New South Wales | $349,000 |
| Victoria | $327,000 |
| Northern Territory | $365,000 |
| Western Australia | $298,000 |
Reasons for the Increase in Costs
Most of the increase in the cost of building a home in Australia can be attributed to the implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic. These include but are not limited to:
- Increase in building material
Building material costs have risen by 14%. This is occurred due to supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic.
- Delay in shipment
Due to the recent pandemic, the shipment of goods around the world has slowed. This heavily affects the construction of a house as the materials necessary to build don’t arrive on time. These increases cost as builders might have to pay an extra sum for the shipment to be done faster
- Cost of land
After COVID-19, land prices have inflated significantly. The first course of action when building a home would be to consider the price of the land you will be building on. This could add to the price overall. This amount could vary hugely from state to state.
