When international borders closed to slow the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, it was widely expected that house prices would fall sharply due to a sudden decrease in demand.

However, recently released ABS data has demonstrated that house prices increased by 15.6 per cent in Melbourne and 20 per cent in regional Victoria over the year to August 2021.

In the same period, unit prices in Melbourne and regional Victoria saw an increase of 7.3 per cent and 22.3 per cent respectively. 

Prices are now expected to continue to increase into next year.

A total of 6,519 new homes were approved across Victoria during August 2021 – up almost 11 per cent on the previous month.

This figure is also significantly higher than the same month last year (+25.5 per cent).

Master Builders Victoria CEO Rebecca Casson said the monthly percentage increase of building approvals in Victoria surpassed the national average of 6.8 per cent, which demonstrated the strong resilience in our state’s economy despite recent lockdowns.

“Approvals for both detached houses and for medium/high density homes rose during August,” Ms Casson said.

Master Builders Victoria is excited to announce the 2021 Master Builders Victoria North West Regional Residential Builder of the Year and showcase the excellent achievements of our residential Regional Master Builders Members.  

The North West Regional Residential Builder of the Year was awarded to Col Gowers Homes for its Mildura project.

Master Builders Victoria CEO Rebecca Casson congratulated Col Gowers Homes on their well-deserved achievement. 

Master Builders Victoria (MBV) has welcomed the re-opening of the building and construction industry from next Tuesday (5 October 2021).

MBV CEO Rebecca Casson said the past two-week shutdown had been extremely challenging for many of MBV’s members unable to work but most can now look forward to getting back on the tools next week.

Latest figures show July 2021 saw 72 construction companies across Australia entering external administration, much fewer than usual for this time of year.

July is normally the busiest month of the year for construction insolvencies with an average of 145 construction companies entering external administration each July since 2013.

The July 2021 figure was still higher than 12 months ago, but insolvencies fell sharply compared with June 2021.

Construction insolvencies in Victoria fell by 30.8 per cent for the month.

The volume of engineering construction work done in Victoria grew by 6.7 per cent during the June 2021 quarter but is still down (-6.1 per cent) on this time last year.

In total, the volume of engineering construction work done was valued at $4.4 billion during the June 2021 quarter.

Over the past 20 years, an average of $3 billion worth of engineering construction work has been done in Victoria each quarter across Victoria.

Master Builders Victoria is excited to announce the 2021 Master Builders Victoria North East Regional Residential Builder of the Year and showcase the excellent achievements of our residential Regional Master Builders Members. 

The North East Regional Residential Builder of the Year was awarded to Scott James Builder for its East Albury project.

Master Builders Victoria CEO Rebecca Casson congratulated Scott James Builder on their well-deserved achievement.