Brisbane now most expensive place to build in Australia

11 hours ago 5

Brisbane is now the most expensive place to build in Australia, according to new data. It could push house prices higher and cause further blow outs or delays for major projects.

It now costs $5009 per square metre – or about 3 per cent more than second-placed Sydney – on average to build in the city, the 2025 Global Construction Market Intelligence report from Turner and Townsend shows.

“Look, we are pretty concerned about capacity constraints in the Queensland market over the coming years,” project director Tiffany Emmett said.

Construction costs in Brisbane are now higher than anywhere else in Australia – and it could have significant flow on effects for housing and infrustructure.

“We’re expecting that they’re going to need to draw on interstate resources and skills to help deliver the pipeline.

“If they don’t, then obviously there’s the risk of budget overruns, projects being delayed, and potentially some projects not even going ahead because they just can’t get the ... workers or there just isn’t the capacity in the market to deliver them.”

Construction costs in Brisbane rose 4.4 per cent last year, and are expected to increase a further 5.5 per cent in 2025 – more than anywhere else in the country.

Emmett reports the increases are exacerbated by a growing pipeline of major infrastructure projects – including Cross River Rail, the Brisbane Metro, hospital rescue program, and a new stadium at Victoria Park – in the lead up to the 2032 Olympic Games, as well as significant interstate migration.

The Queensland government has previously said it may need to bring more workers in from other states to complete projects.

The average wage for Brisbane workers in construction is now $77 an hour, according to Turner and Townsend.

The new figures represent building costs for non-residential projects such hospitals, schools, retail precincts and offices but could have significant flow on affects to housing, according to Emmett.

“The challenge that we’ve got there is that there isn’t enough housing to house a meaningful increase in the workforce,” she said.

“They need to address the housing problem and the shortages with housing before they can actually start to increase the labour pool and help to deliver a lot of those projects.

“I mean it’s all driven by demand and supply … I think that we will continue to see costs rise in Brisbane, and probably in the whole of the south-east Queensland region itself.”

Sydney is the next most expensive city in Australia for building costs at $4866 per square metre, followed by Perth ($4497 per square metre), Melbourne ($4242 per square metre) and Adelaide ($4133 per square metre).

Worldwide, New York is the most expensive city to build at $9177 per square metre – more than double the cost in most Australian cities. San Francisco, Zurich, Geneva, London and Los Angeles round out the top six.

In Brisbane, the Master Builders Association estimates house construction costs at about $2500 per square metre and units at $10,000 to $15,000 per square metre.

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