Australian suburban house building: industry organisation, practices and constraints

Positioning paper

• Tony Dalton
• Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute

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01 December 2011The increasingly inadequate supply of housing throughout Australia, especially in capital cities, is a housing policy issue of national significance. It has ramifications for such issues as housing affordability and the present under-supply of social housing. Although there are various reasons for this under-supply of housing, this research project will address questions relating to construction industry structure.

The extensive use of sub-contractors has been a ubiquitous model in residential construction for decades and it is widely believed to be the most efficient modus operandi structuring the building industry. Following up some anecdotal evidence, this project will seek to test the hypothesis that delays in housing construction are at least partly caused by difficulties in the work processes, management systems and productivity of subcontractors by tracking the current use and practices of subcontractors.

This research project, adopting a range of statistical, interview and scenario modeling methods, will yield better ways of managing the subcontracting process and procurement strategies thus contributing to policies directed at overcoming Australia’s critical housing supply shortage.