Your Next Job Comes From Your Last Client: Why Every Builder Needs a Customer Experience Program
Of every tool a builder can put in their business, a customer experience program is one of the most critical. It is not the flashiest. It is one of the most important, and here is what it actually does. Ask most builders where their next job comes from and they will...
McNab Breaks Ground on the $220m Tannery, Building a New Apartment Community Around an 1869 Heritage Building
McNab has moved The Tannery from a funding announcement to an active build in West End. Beneath the price tag sits the detail that matters to builders: a 156-year-old industrial building being kept and worked into a new residential project. McNab has broken ground on...
The People Being Called to Argue for a Queensland Construction Code, and What Their Model Would Change on a Government Job
Public hearings on Queensland's proposed construction code run from 14 to 30 July, sitting right on top of the 24 July deadline for industry to respond. The witnesses being called reveal the model on the table: a state-level rebuild of the ABCC. Queensland's...
Everyone Says Migration Will Fix the Trades Shortage. Here Is Why Your Site Still Cannot Get a Bricklayer
The workers were promised. The numbers tell a different story. Ask any builder what was supposed to ease the trades shortage and you will hear the same answer. Skilled migration. For two years it has been the policy line, the industry ask, the headline solution. Bring...
latest news
Australia Spent Four Years Fighting Over Zoning Maps. The Real Bottleneck Sits After Approval
A new national map of zoning laws has put Melbourne out in front and everyone else on the back foot. It is a useful picture. It is also the wrong thing to celebrate, because the part of the pipeline that is actually failing sits well past the zoning map. There is a...
ACT Buys CSIRO’s Ginninderra Land for $385 Million, Setting Up a New Canberra Suburb and Up to 3,000 Homes
After more than a decade of stalled negotiations, the ACT Government has finally landed one of the most significant pieces of housing land in the territory’s history. It has agreed to buy 243 hectares of the former CSIRO Ginninderra experiment station on the Barton...
A 19 Year Old Carpenter Turned Two Award Wins Into a Hand Up for Four Apprentices
Most people would have kept the prizes. The gesture is generous. The reason it lands so hard says something bigger about the cost of starting out in a trade right now. Oscar Cherry had every reason to keep the prizes. The 19 year old apprentice carpenter from...
Treasury Opens Consultation on the 30 Per Cent Trust Tax. Builders Running a Family Trust Have Until 31 July to Have a Say.
The measure itself is not new. What is new is that the design detail is now on the table, and the window to influence it is short. The 30 per cent minimum tax on discretionary trusts has been coming since budget night. On 8 July, it moved a step closer. Treasury...
Why a Welsh Bricklayer Reckons Australia Is 15 Years Behind on How We Build Homes
Michael Hopkins has laid bricks across the UK, Germany and Australia. His take on how we build homes here is uncomfortable, but it is worth hearing out. Michael Hopkins has laid bricks on three continents. He did his apprenticeship in the UK in the late 1980s, worked...
Steel Is Coming Back to Newcastle, and This Time There Is No Gas in the Furnace
For the first time in a generation, someone is building a new steel mill in Australia. Not propping up an old one. Building a new one, on the same Newcastle ground where BHP made steel for most of the twentieth century. Greensteel Australia confirmed this week it has...
The Approvals Are There. The Starts Are Not. What the Latest ABS Data Really Shows.
Approvals have been the good news story of 2026. But the latest Building Activity data shows home starts went backwards in the March quarter. For builders, the gap between the two is the number that matters. The Good Builder | July 2026 For most of this...
Queensland Puts $19 Million Behind Its Fuel Security Plan. The Real Story Is What That Money Buys, and When.
Queensland has finally put a dollar figure on its fuel ambitions. For builders watching diesel prices swing on every load of concrete, the number matters less than the timeline behind it. Queensland has now put a dollar figure on its fuel ambitions. The 2026-27...
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Queensland’s CFMEU Inquiry Just Put a Draft Construction Code on the Table. Builders Have Until 24 July to Respond.
The Commission has published Counsel Assisting's submission backing a Building and Construction Code and an independent regulator, with draft implementation guidelines attached. Here is what it means and how to have your say. The Queensland construction industry has...
Townsville Is Now the Fastest-Rising Construction Market in the World. The Speed Is the Story, Not the Price.
A North Queensland city of around 200,000 people just topped a global cost table ahead of Honolulu and Johannesburg. For builders, the ranking matters less than what sits underneath it, and the forecast says the pressure holds for years. When a global study of...
Build Homes Like Cars: Inside Pryda’s Case Against the One-Off Build
A Pryda engineer says the reason Australia keeps missing its housing targets is not skills or funding. It is that we still build every home as a one-off. His fix is to build them like cars. Australia has spent years talking about how to build more homes faster. Bigger...
NSW Replaces 22 Agency Doors With One. What the Development Coordination Authority Actually Changes for Approvals
From 1 July, anyone in NSW with a development application that needs state government input deals with a single authority instead of chasing up to 22 of them. Here is what that means on the ground, and where the real bottleneck still sits. If you have ever had a...
The Good Builder Podcast
PARTNER CONTENT
The New Priorities Shaping Multi-Residential Projects
The current state of Australia’s housing market is pressured, to say the least. New apartments and built-to-rent developments still lag behind demand, and although some states show promising growth in stock, forecasts from the National Housing Supply and Affordability...
Winter Conditions Make Floor Protection More Critical Than Ever
Mud, moisture, and heavy boots are part of every winter build. For builders who have already paid for premium flooring, the question is not whether conditions will cause damage. It is whether anything is protecting against them. Winter on an Australian construction...
Builders Tried Full AI. Most Pulled Back. Here Is What They Learned.
Eighty per cent of building businesses that went all-in on AI have since walked it back. What that reversal tells us about how AI actually fits in a building business. There was a moment, not long ago, when AI felt like it was going to solve everything. Estimating....
More Surfaces, More Risk: Why Multi-Residential Builders Cannot Afford to Skip Surface Protection
Australia is building up. Not just in the capital cities, but in regional centres, coastal corridors, and the middle-ring suburbs that state governments are targeting with density policies and infrastructure investment. The shift toward multi-residential construction...
Meta Has Changed How It Charges for Ads. Here’s How You Can Capitalise On It.
If your business advertises on Facebook or Instagram, something changed on 1 April 2026 that is worth understanding. Meta has quietly moved higher-spend advertisers off credit card payments and onto monthly invoicing. Instead of charging your card at point of...
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Two Platforms, One Goal: MyConstruct and BuiltGrid Join Forces to Solve Construction’s Supply Chain Problem
The integration of MyConstruct and BuiltGrid means Australian builders can now manage their entire procurement and supply chain from a single platform. It is a practical step forward for an industry that has been held back by fragmented tools, email chaos, and a...
Protecting the Finish: Why the Last 5% of a Build Is Where Reputations Are Won or Lost
Builders invest months delivering a home. A single damaged surface at handover can define what a client remembers. Most residential builds are won or lost long before anyone unlocks the front door. The tender is priced carefully. The slab is poured on time. Frames go...
The Builders Who Specify for the Long Run, Not the Low Quote
A shift is happening in how quality-focused Australian builders approach product selection. And drainage is a useful lens for understanding what that shift actually looks like in practice. There was a time when most product specification decisions came down to one...
CPD Is Not Just a Tick-Box. It Is Smart Business for Builders
For many builders, Continuing Professional Development appears on the calendar once a year. A reminder arrives. A few modules are completed. Certificates are downloaded. Points are logged. Licence renewal secured. Job done. But reducing CPD to a compliance exercise...
industry profiles
Why a Welsh Bricklayer Reckons Australia Is 15 Years Behind on How We Build Homes
Michael Hopkins has laid bricks across the UK, Germany and Australia. His take on how we build homes here is uncomfortable, but it is worth hearing out. Michael Hopkins has laid bricks on three continents. He did his apprenticeship in the UK in the late 1980s, worked...
Build Homes Like Cars: Inside Pryda’s Case Against the One-Off Build
A Pryda engineer says the reason Australia keeps missing its housing targets is not skills or funding. It is that we still build every home as a one-off. His fix is to build them like cars. Australia has spent years talking about how to build more homes faster. Bigger...
Brad Acheson Built One of Dubbo’s Most Respected Building Businesses. Then Realised He Was Missing the Right Systems.
Thirty years of reputation. Thirty-five homes a year. His own name on the door. Brad Acheson had built something most builders only dream about. Then he decided it still wasn't enough. Brad Acheson had his builder's licence at 20 years and 11 months. He was born and...
The Smartest Builders Are Not Just Hiring. They Are Building Their Workforce Years in Advance.
Recruitment specialist Julie Bolitho has watched the building industry from the inside since she was sixteen. Her advice ahead of the 2032 demand surge is simple. Start growing your own people now. Last updated: 16 June 2026 Most builders treat recruitment as...
Brisbane Builder Mathew Vanstyn Deliberately Capped His Own Growth, and It Made Vanstyn Constructions Stronger
Mathew Vanstyn built a 15-person patio and renovation business by knowing exactly how big he wanted it to be. His refusal to chase scale is a lesson in risk management most builders learn the hard way. Most builder failure stories share a common thread. The business...
The Grim Reaper Wants to Keep Your Business Alive
Liquidators have a reputation that keeps builders awake at night. According to Chris from Jirsch Sutherland, that fear is based on a misconception. His first question is never about closing a business down. Nobody grows up wanting to be a liquidator. Chris, a Partner...
The Builder Who Won’t Build Bad Houses: Dan Saunders on Legacy, Performance and Raising the Bar
Christchurch builder Dan Saunders has spent three decades building homes that perform well beyond the code. His message for Australian builders is simple: the code is the floor, not the ceiling. There is a line Dan Saunders uses when he talks about the New Zealand...
The Recruiter Who Built Homes First: Luke Cotterell on What Builders Really Need in Their People
PrimeBuild Recruitment founder Luke Cotterell spent more than a decade on tools, in offices and on sites before he ever placed a candidate. That background is exactly why the builders he works with keep calling him back. There is a version of a recruiter that...
GRAYA Launches The Gallery, Bringing a New Benchmark to Racecourse Road
At a launch event in Hamilton last night, the team behind The Gallery explained how a two-year site acquisition, a decision to retain all retail, and a building designed around a specific buyer all point to the same long-term position. Racecourse Road has been waiting...
home builder news
The People Being Called to Argue for a Queensland Construction Code, and What Their Model Would Change on a Government Job
Public hearings on Queensland's proposed construction code run from 14 to 30 July, sitting right on top of the 24 July deadline for industry to respond. The witnesses being called reveal the model on the table: a state-level rebuild of the ABCC. Queensland's...
Everyone Says Migration Will Fix the Trades Shortage. Here Is Why Your Site Still Cannot Get a Bricklayer
The workers were promised. The numbers tell a different story. Ask any builder what was supposed to ease the trades shortage and you will hear the same answer. Skilled migration. For two years it has been the policy line, the industry ask, the headline solution. Bring...
Australia Spent Four Years Fighting Over Zoning Maps. The Real Bottleneck Sits After Approval
A new national map of zoning laws has put Melbourne out in front and everyone else on the back foot. It is a useful picture. It is also the wrong thing to celebrate, because the part of the pipeline that is actually failing sits well past the zoning map. There is a...
The Approvals Are There. The Starts Are Not. What the Latest ABS Data Really Shows.
Approvals have been the good news story of 2026. But the latest Building Activity data shows home starts went backwards in the March quarter. For builders, the gap between the two is the number that matters. The Good Builder | July 2026 For most of this...
Townsville Is Now the Fastest-Rising Construction Market in the World. The Speed Is the Story, Not the Price.
A North Queensland city of around 200,000 people just topped a global cost table ahead of Honolulu and Johannesburg. For builders, the ranking matters less than what sits underneath it, and the forecast says the pressure holds for years. When a global study of...
NSW Replaces 22 Agency Doors With One. What the Development Coordination Authority Actually Changes for Approvals
From 1 July, anyone in NSW with a development application that needs state government input deals with a single authority instead of chasing up to 22 of them. Here is what that means on the ground, and where the real bottleneck still sits. If you have ever had a...
The Rules on Warranty Just Changed for Builders. Here Is What It Does to Your Risk on Every Job.
Warranty used to only bite if you went under. In a growing slice of the country, it can now be triggered while you are still on the tools, on the job, and still trading. If you build for a living, that changes your exposure whether or not you build in Victoria. You...
The builders who moved hardest in FY2025/26, and the ones only pretending to fall
The Good Builder's Top 100 Queensland Builders report ranks the state's hundred largest residential builders across two financial years. The averages tell a calm story. The individual builders do not. Some doubled and tripled. Some shed most of their volume. And a few...
Why Builders Lose Their Margin Before the Job Starts, and the Queensland Roadshow Built to Win It Back
On the latest Good Builder Podcast, Owen Chambers from The Professional Builder made a claim most builders never hear said plainly. The money leaks out of a job long before the first tool comes out. His three city Queensland roadshow lands this month to prove it, and...
She Built a Career in Colombia. Now She Is Helping Build Sydney’s Hospitals.
Andrea Ramirez Pertuz arrived in Australia with a civil engineering degree and a plan. Her path to working on some of Sydney's biggest hospital redevelopments offers a practical lesson in how the industry absorbs skilled migrants when the system works properly. Andrea...
Victoria’s Top Apprentice Started With a Job Ad for Antarctica
Hannah Dillimore didn't take the conventional path into the trades. She saw an ad for welders in Antarctica and thought, that's interesting. She wasn't ready for the South Pole, but the spark was lit. The 27-year-old from Melbourne's South East is now Victoria's 2026...
AWIC Awards 2026: Nominations Are Open
The Awesome Women in Construction Awards are back for their fifth year, and if you haven't paid attention before, 2026 might be the year to start. The AWIC Awards aren't just a gala night. They're one of the few places in this industry where the people doing the...
From Support Work to Sawdust: How One Northern Rivers Mum Found Her Trade.
Abbey Paxton changed careers after a horse riding accident, walked into a TAFE classroom at 30 with two kids at home, and has since renovated her first house. Her story is exactly what the construction industry needs more of. And there has never been a better time to...
ACT Buys CSIRO’s Ginninderra Land for $385 Million, Setting Up a New Canberra Suburb and Up to 3,000 Homes
After more than a decade of stalled negotiations, the ACT Government has finally landed one of the most significant pieces of housing land in the territory’s history. It has agreed to buy 243 hectares of the former CSIRO Ginninderra experiment station on the Barton...
Treasury Opens Consultation on the 30 Per Cent Trust Tax. Builders Running a Family Trust Have Until 31 July to Have a Say.
The measure itself is not new. What is new is that the design detail is now on the table, and the window to influence it is short. The 30 per cent minimum tax on discretionary trusts has been coming since budget night. On 8 July, it moved a step closer. Treasury...
Queensland Puts $19 Million Behind Its Fuel Security Plan. The Real Story Is What That Money Buys, and When.
Queensland has finally put a dollar figure on its fuel ambitions. For builders watching diesel prices swing on every load of concrete, the number matters less than the timeline behind it. Queensland has now put a dollar figure on its fuel ambitions. The 2026-27...
Queensland’s CFMEU Inquiry Just Put a Draft Construction Code on the Table. Builders Have Until 24 July to Respond.
The Commission has published Counsel Assisting's submission backing a Building and Construction Code and an independent regulator, with draft implementation guidelines attached. Here is what it means and how to have your say. The Queensland construction industry has...
Why Looking After Your Business Is Part of Looking After Yourself
Most builders blame themselves when the pressure becomes too much. On a recent Good Builder Podcast, estimator Josh Peapoint made a different case. A lot of that pressure is built into how the business runs, not who the builder is. No builder burns out because they...
When the Business Goes Under, the Family Goes With It
Behind every insolvency statistic is a person. Usually a couple. Often a family. The construction industry talks constantly about cashflow and contracts. It almost never talks about this. In 2024, more than 3,200 construction companies in Australia entered insolvency...
The Number That Should Stop the Construction Industry in Their Tracks
There is a number that sits behind every conversation about mental health in the Australian construction industry, and it does not get said often enough. On average, a construction worker takes their own life every two days in Australia. Not per week. Every two days....
Queensland Launches Workers’ Comp Review. Here Is What Blue-Collar Workers Need to Know.
A state government review into Queensland's workers' compensation scheme is raising important questions about how psychological injuries are treated. Legal and mental health experts are urging caution before protections are wound back. Queensland's workers'...
Canada’s $25 Billion Bet: Can a Government Housing Agency Actually Build Homes?
Canada has created a new government body to act as a housing developer, backed by $25 billion and a target to double construction output. It is one of the most ambitious interventions in a Western housing market in decades. Here is what to watch. Most governments...
The New Zealand Recovery: What Surviving the Worst Construction Downturn Since 1991 Teaches Builders
New Zealand builders have just traded through what industry leaders describe as the worst recession since 1991. Some held their teams together. Some didn't. The ones who held on are now positioned differently. Here is what the evidence shows. New Zealand construction...
Japan’s Construction Time Bomb: Who Builds a Country When the Builders Are Too Old?
Japan's construction workforce is ageing faster than it can be replaced. The country is 20 years ahead of Australia on this curve. What it is doing now, and what it is failing to do, is a preview every building industry needs to watch. Japan has a way of arriving at...
Germany’s Housing Paradox: Record Demand, Collapsed Supply
Germany is running short of hundreds of thousands of homes while its construction industry reports a historic lack of orders. Understanding how the most engineering-proud economy in Europe ended up here matters for every building market. There is something deeply...
Britain’s Building Problem: 1.5 Million Homes Promised, No Workers to Build Them
Labour came to power promising to fix Britain's housing crisis. The plans are ambitious. The construction workforce is not. Here is why the gap between target and delivery keeps growing. When the UK Labour government took office, housing was at the centre of its...
America’s Tariff Trap: When Housing Policy Undermines the Industry Building Homes
The United States set out to protect domestic industry. Instead, its own builders are caught in the crossfire. Here is what happened when trade policy met a four-million-home deficit. There is a particular kind of irony that runs through America's housing crisis right...
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