Construction Productivity and Your New Home

If you’ve tried to build or renovate a home in the last few years, you don’t need a government report to tell you something’s off.

Quotes are through the roof.
Builders are booked out.
Delays feel endless.
Everyone blames “the system”, "red tape", the council, the supply chain, "yo mama", you … or each other.

The Queensland Productivity Commission (QPC) has stepped into this mess and asked a simple question:

why is construction so hard, so slow, and so expensive – and what can we do about it?

They’ve released an interim report looking at the construction industry in Queensland, but the themes will feel very familiar anywhere in Australia:

Too many rules that don’t always line up
Not enough skilled people to do the work
Government projects competing with private builds for the same tradies and materials
Contracts and risk being pushed down the chain in ways that don’t always make sense

On paper, this reads as a “productivity review”.

In reality, it’s an X-ray of why your new home is likely to be more expensive, slower, and more stressful than it should be.

QPC: Opportunities to Improve Productivity of the Construction Industry Interim Report 2025

Why this review matters for homeowners

The QPC isn’t a lobby group for builders, and it isn’t a watchdog like the QBCC.

It’s an independent body that looks at how systems work (or don’t work) and advises government on how to improve them.

In this case, they’ve looked at:

Planning and zoning rules that affect land supply and approvals
Building regulation – including the National Construction Code (NCC) and Australian Standards
How government buys construction services (procurement) and how that shapes the whole market
Workforce issues – trades, skills, training and workplace settings
Red tape, duplication and administrative overheads that slow projects and add cost

What “Productivity” Means in Construction (It’s Not Just ‘Work Faster’)

When economists talk about productivity, they’re not saying tradies should swing hammers faster or walk faster onsite.

In construction, productivity is mainly about:

How much useful work gets done for every dollar spent
How much real progress you get for every hour on site
How much time is not wasted on waiting, rework, confusion and paperwork

Low productivity usually looks like this on a house build:

Jobs start and stop because someone’s waiting on a drawing, approval or decision
Trades are on site but can’t work because materials or inspections aren’t ready
Designs change midstream, forcing rework and extra costs
The builder spends more time dealing with admin and arguments than managing quality

High productivity is almost the opposite:

The design is thought through early
Decisions are made at the right time (not during framing)
Trades turn up, do the work, and don’t have to come back three times
Approvals, inspections and documentation are planned into the program

The NCC and Australian Standards still set the minimum bar for safety, structure, fire, waterproofing and energy performance. Good productivity is about meeting those standards with less waste, not ignoring them.

For you as a homeowner, productivity shows up in three simple ways:

Time – how long you’re paying rent and interest while you wait
Cost – how much “dead time” and rework you end up funding
Quality – whether there’s enough breathing room for trades to do things properly

Next time you talk timelines and price with a builder, ask:

“How do you plan the job so trades aren’t standing around waiting, and we’re not paying for constant rework and delays?”

If they can’t answer that clearly, that’s a productivity warning sign.

a group of construction workers standing on top of a building — Photo by Marcus Reubenstein / Unsplash

What Industry Told the Commission

When the Queensland Productivity Commission asked builders, consultants, regulators and unions what’s going wrong, a few themes came up again and again.

Here’s the short version.

What builders, trades and consultants are saying

Rules don’t line up

Planning laws, the NCC, Australian Standards and council requirements often clash or overlap.
- Result: redesigns, extra reports, and “surprise” conditions late in the piece.

Too many cooks in the kitchen

Different departments and agencies all want forms, sign-offs and tweaks.
- Result: more admin, more delays, and more chances for things to fall through the cracks.

Government work soaks up capacity

Big government projects (roads, schools, hospitals) pull in the same trades and suppliers you need for your house.
- Result: higher prices and longer waits for residential work.

Risk is shoved downhill

Head contracts push a lot of risk onto builders, who then push it onto subcontractors.
- Result: higher “risk pricing”, more claims, more arguments, and some contractors simply refusing to quote.

Workforce is stretched

Not enough skilled people, patchy training, and lots of pressure to “just get it done”.
- Result: supervision suffers, defects go up, and experienced people burn out or leave the industry.

These are industry perspectives, not all proven facts – but they’re consistent with what many homeowners see on the ground: long delays, few quotes, and rising costs.

How this hits you as a homeowner

All of that noise eventually turns into:

Fewer builders willing to take on your job
Higher base prices and larger “contingency” allowances
Longer pre-construction periods (design, approvals, conditions)
More variation claims and time extensions once you’ve already signed

You only see the tip of the iceberg on your project; the rest is buried in how the system works.

Where Time and Money Really Get Wasted

Most of the waste in construction doesn’t come from people “being lazy” on site. It comes from how the whole system is set up around your project.

Here’s where a lot of time and money disappears.

1. Overlapping and inconsistent rules

Planning schemes, the NCC, and Australian Standards don’t always line up neatly.
Councils can interpret rules differently, even within the same state.
Conditions get added late or changed mid-way.

What this means for you:

Redesigns, extra reports, amended drawings, and re-submissions – all of which take time and usually cost more.

2. Fragmented responsibilities

State government, local council, referral agencies, certifiers and utilities all have a piece of the puzzle.
No one body owns the whole process from “idea” to “occupancy”.

What this means for you:

Lots of hand-offs, mixed messages and “we’re just waiting on X” delays.

3. Boom–bust project pipelines

When government “turns the tap on” with big infrastructure programs, the whole industry swings to chase that work.
When the tap turns off, everyone scrambles back to private work.

What this means for you:

You’re competing with government for the same trades and materials. Prices and lead times shift quickly, even after you’ve signed a contract.

4. Contracts that dump risk

Many head contracts push heavy risk onto builders (time, latent conditions, design responsibility).
Builders then push that down to subcontractors and suppliers.

What this means for you:

Higher prices up front, more variations and claims later, and more arguments about who pays when something goes wrong or gets delayed.

5. The result on your project

All of this shows up as:

Long gaps between milestones
A lot of “hurry up and wait”
Builders pricing in extra buffer time and money to survive the chaos

Very little of this is visible in the glossy brochure or the simple “build time” number in your contract.

happy new year neon light signage — Photo by Levi Meir Clancy / Unsplash

Government Projects: Competing With Your New Home

When government spends big on roads, rail, hospitals and schools, it’s good for the state – but it also puts pressure on the same industry that’s building your house.

How government work changes the game

When the pipeline of public work is heavy or poorly timed:

The best trades chase government jobs
Bigger, longer-term projects feel safer and easier to plan around.
Prices rise across the board
Labour and materials are in short supply, so everyone pays more – including homeowners.
Tender fatigue kicks in
Builders spend time pricing lots of complex jobs with low win rates, so they become selective about what they’ll quote.

If government over-programs – announcing more work than the industry can reasonably deliver – it magnifies all of this.

2. What it means for your house build

You’ll often see:

Fewer quality builders willing to quote a custom home
Higher base prices to cover staff retention and risk
Longer lead times for key trades (concrete, framing, electrical, hydraulics, façade trades)
Less appetite from good builders to take on “messy” or higher-risk residential jobs

It’s not that your project isn’t important – it’s that the same people and materials are being pulled in too many directions.

Planning, Zoning and Land Release: Why “Ready to Build” Land Is Hard to Find

You can’t build a house if the land isn’t truly ready to go. A big chunk of the productivity problem sits before anyone turns up with an excavator.

1. Slow and complex planning

Councils juggle zoning rules, overlays (flood, bushfire, flight paths/acoustics, reclaimed land, character), infrastructure constraints and community objections.
Different planners within the same council can interpret rules differently.
Conditions are often added late in the process.

For you: DA (development approval) can drag on for months, even for fairly standard projects.

2. Planning rules vs building rules

The planning system and the NCC / Australian Standards don’t always line up neatly.
A design that “works” under the NCC might still hit planning hurdles (height, setbacks, site cover, character controls).

For you: Design changes, extra reports (traffic, flooding, overshadowing), and redraws you didn’t budget for.

3. Land release and “shovel-ready” lots

Land may be zoned for housing but not actually serviced (roads, sewer, water, storm water) or subdivided yet.
Release of new estates doesn’t always match where demand is strongest.

For you: Higher land prices, fewer genuine options, and long waits between “buying a block” and actually being allowed to start.

4. What this all adds up to

Even with a good builder and solid design, your project can stall because:

Planning risk wasn’t properly understood
Approval time frames were wildly optimistic
Hidden conditions pop up late and force redesigns

This is why “We’ll be out of the ground in 8 weeks” often becomes “We’re still waiting on council.”

Building Rules: NCC, Australian Standards and the QBCC

There’s a lot of talk about “red tape” in construction. Some of it is nonsense; some of it is very real. To make sense of it, you need to know the basics of how building rules actually work.

The main players

For a typical house in Queensland, you’re dealing with:

National Construction Code (NCC)
Sets the minimum performance requirements for structure, fire, health, energy efficiency, waterproofing, etc.
Australian Standards
Documents like AS 2870 (residential slabs and footings) and AS 1684 (timber framing) give detailed ways to meet the NCC. They’re often “referenced” by the NCC, which makes them effectively mandatory.
Queensland legislation and the QBCC
State laws govern licensing, defects, home warranty insurance and enforcement.
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC) licenses builders and can step in when things go badly wrong.

These are there to stop unsafe and poor-quality building – not just to annoy everyone.

Where the system works

When it’s used properly, this framework:

Sets a minimum standard for safety and performance
Gives engineers, designers and builders a common rule book
Provides a basis for defects and dispute resolution (“Did it meet the NCC and the relevant Standard?”)

In other words: if your home complies with the NCC and the right Australian Standards, it should be structurally sound, reasonably durable and safe to occupy.

Where it bogs things down

The Queensland Productivity Commission heard a lot of feedback that:

Rules change often and are hard to keep up with
Different parties (councils, certifiers, engineers) interpret requirements differently
Extra “policies” get layered on top of the NCC and Standards
Licensing and compliance checks don’t always target the worst behaviour

This can lead to:

Extra reports and redesigns
Arguments over “interpretation”
More time spent proving compliance than actually building
Costs passed on to you to cover the admin load

The problem isn’t having rules. It’s when they’re overlapping, unclear or poorly targeted.

What this means for your project

For you as a homeowner:

You want your builder and consultants to take the NCC and relevant Standards seriously
But you also want them to be honest about when you’re paying for genuine safety and performance… and when you’re funding someone’s internal policy or over-cautious box-ticking

Good operators know the difference and can explain it in plain English.

Labour, Skills and Workplace Settings: Why You Can’t Find a Tradie

Even with land, approvals and a solid design, you still need people to actually build the thing. That’s another pressure point the Productivity Commission calls out.

1. Not enough skilled people

Industry feedback is pretty consistent:

There aren’t enough experienced trades in key areas (carpenters, concreters, supervisors, site managers).
Apprenticeships are harder to fill and harder to keep – pay, conditions and job security all play a part.
Training doesn’t always line up with how building is actually done now (offsite fabrication, newer materials, digital tools).

For you: Lead times stretch, good trades are booked out, and some builders simply say “no” to extra work.

2.Pressure on quality and supervision

When labour is tight:

Builders juggle crews between too many jobs.
Supervisors carry too many sites at once.
Apprentices get thrown in the deep end without enough mentoring.

For you: Less careful setup, less thorough supervision, and more defects that only show up at handover – or worse, years later.

3.Workplace settings and agreements

In some parts of the industry, enterprise bargaining agreements and union conditions shape how work is done:

They can support safer, better jobs – which helps keep people in the industry.
They can also reduce flexibility or increase costs on certain projects, depending on how they’re set up.

For you: You don’t control these settings, but they affect what your builder pays for labour – and what they have to charge you.

4.What this means in practice

All of this adds up to:

Higher hourly rates and margins
Longer programs (because teams are stretched)
Less appetite for “messy” or custom residential jobs that are hard to program

The labour issue isn’t going away quickly. It has to be managed, not wished away.

man in orange and black vest wearing white helmet holding yellow and black power tool — Photo by Jeriden Villegas / Unsplash

Red Tape and the Compliance “Maze”

Even when everyone’s trying to do the right thing, the way we manage compliance can chew through time and money.

1. Too many forms, not enough sense

The Commission heard plenty of stories like this:

Different agencies asking for similar information, but in different formats
The same documents uploaded to multiple portals
Minor wording differences causing big delays (“wrong” template, wrong version, wrong box ticked)

For you:You end up paying consultants and builders to feed systems rather than solve problems.

2.Confusing and changing requirements

Definitions and thresholds differ between planning rules, building codes and other legislation.
Requirements change, with short lead times and patchy guidance.
Certifiers, councils and agencies can interpret the same rule differently.

For you: More time spent arguing about what the rule actually means, and whether you’ve “met” it, instead of just getting the work done.

3. Compliance as a full-time job

For many builders and consultants, compliance admin is now a job in itself:

Dedicated staff for portals, lodgements and reporting
Extra layers of checking to avoid fines or rejection
Time spent chasing other parties for missing documents

No one wants to be on the wrong side of the NCC, Australian Standards or state legislation – but the way we prove compliance can be clunky and repetitive.

For you: Those overheads end up in your fees and your contract price, even though none of them directly pour concrete or hang plasterboard.

4. The real problem

The issue isn’t that we check work. We should.

The problem is when the process of proving compliance is:

Duplicated across agencies
Poorly coordinated
Constantly shifting

That’s where productivity dies – and where your budget quietly bleeds.

The Opportunities: How a Better System Would Mean for You

So far, this all sounds a bit grim. The good news is the Productivity Commission isn’t just listing problems; it’s pointing to areas where things could be improved.

Here’s what that might look like in practice.

1. Smarter government pipelines

Fewer big “sugar hits” of work that overload the industry
More stable, predictable pipelines of public projects
Less crowding-out of residential work

What that means for you: More predictable trade availability and pricing, rather than sudden spikes just as you’re ready to build.

2.Fairer, more realistic contracts

Government and large clients using contract models that share risk more sensibly
Less “all care, no responsibility” pushed onto builders and subs
More focus on collaboration and problem-solving, not just claims and blame

What that means for you: Builders less on edge, less defensive, and more willing to price work fairly instead of loading everything “just in case”.

3. Simpler, better-aligned rules

Planning rules, the NCC and Australian Standards working together instead of clashing
Less duplication between agencies
Clearer guidance and more realistic transition periods when rules change

What that means for you: Fewer surprise redesigns, shorter approval times, and less money spent on going round in circles.

4 Targeted regulation and licensing

Licensing that focuses on the areas of greatest risk to consumers
Compliance energy spent on high-risk behaviours, not low-impact paperwork
Better data to see where things actually go wrong and fix those points

What that means for you: More confidence that dodgy operators will be squeezed out, without burying good operators in pointless admin.

5 Better skills and training

Training that fits how construction is actually done now (including offsite, digital, new materials)
Stronger pathways to attract and keep good people in trades and supervision
Support for innovation that lifts both productivity and quality

What that means for you: More capable teams on your job, better supervision, and fewer “we’ve never done it that way before” moments.

None of this happens overnight. But these are realistic directions that could make your future home cheaper, faster and better without lowering NCC or Australian Standard requirements.

Conclusion: Understanding the System So You Can Navigate It

The Queensland Productivity Commission’s work confirms what many people already feel in their gut: building a home is harder, slower and more expensive than it needs to be – and not just because “materials went up” or “everyone’s busy”.

You’ve read how:

Planning and land issues slow things down before you even start
Government projects and boom–bust pipelines shape labour and material costs
NCC, Australian Standards and state rules are essential, but can tangle when they overlap or change too often
Labour and skills shortages push up prices and strain supervision
Red tape and duplicated compliance chew through time and money in the background

None of this means you should give up on building. It means you should go in with your eyes open.

You can’t rewrite the NCC, fix council, or smooth out government pipelines on your own. But you can:

Pick builders and consultants who respect process, not just price
Ask sharper questions about time, cost, risk and quality
Set realistic expectations and contingencies
Push politely but firmly for clarity and accountability at each step

Understanding the system doesn’t make it perfect. It does make you far less likely to be blindsided by problems everyone else saw coming.

FAQs

1. What is the Queensland Productivity Commission and why does its report matter to me?
The Queensland Productivity Commission is an independent body that reviews how policies, regulations and markets work, then advises government on improvements. When it looks at construction, its findings can shape future rules, funding and approval settings – all of which affect the time, cost and complexity of building your home.

2. Does “improving productivity” mean standards will drop and my home will be built faster but worse?
Not necessarily. Genuine productivity is about removing waste – duplicated approvals, poorly timed projects, badly designed contracts – while still meeting the NCC and relevant Australian Standards (for example, AS 2870 for slabs, AS 1684 for timber framing). Done properly, you get better value and more reliable quality, not corner-cutting.

3. Why do planning approvals and zoning rules have such a big impact on my build?
Planning rules decide what can be built on your block (height, setbacks, site cover, character, overlays). If these rules are complex, inconsistent or slow to apply, your design can be delayed, changed or knocked back. That pushes out your start date, increases holding costs and can force expensive redesigns.

4. How do big government projects affect the cost of my house?
Major public works use the same trades, materials and suppliers as residential projects. When government pipelines are large or poorly timed, they soak up capacity. That means fewer builders willing to quote your job, higher prices, and longer delays for key trades, even if your actual house is fairly straightforward.

5. Are NCC and Australian Standards the main reason building is so expensive?
They’re definitely part of the cost – and they should be. The NCC and referenced Australian Standards set minimum levels of safety, durability and performance. The problem isn’t having these rules; it’s when they’re layered with extra policies, interpreted inconsistently, or changed without enough transition time. That’s where unnecessary cost and delay appear.

6. Why is it so hard to find good trades, and why are their rates so high?
The report highlights a mix of issues: not enough experienced trades, apprentices dropping out, training that doesn’t always match modern methods, and strong demand from both public and private work. When labour is tight, good trades can charge more and pick their jobs. That’s why your choice of builder – and how they manage their workforce – is so important.

7. Will any of the suggested reforms lower the price of my current project?
Realistically, no. Most reforms are medium to long term. They might improve things for projects starting years from now. For your current build, the main benefit is understanding why the environment is the way it is, so you can plan for delays and price pressure instead of being shocked by them.

8. What can I do if my builder blames ‘the system’ for every delay or cost increase?
Ask for specifics:

“Which approval or agency are we waiting on?”
“What was the original allowance for this in the program?”
“What options do we have to reduce the impact?”
If answers are vague or constantly shifting, you may be seeing poor project management rather than genuine system issues. At that point, consider independent advice from a building consultant or lawyer.

9. Are prefabricated or modular homes a solution to these productivity problems?
They can help, especially with repeatable designs and controlled factory conditions. Offsite construction can reduce on-site time and improve quality. But planning rules, transport, cranage, local connections and approvals still matter. If you’re considering prefab or modular, ask how the builder manages local approvals, site works and integration with NCC and Australian Standards.

10. I don’t want to read long government reports. How can I stay informed in plain English?
Look for consumer-focused resources (like this one) that translate reports into practical implications: time, cost, quality, and risk. Articles that explain planning, NCC, standards, contracts and quality management in simple language will give you far more value than another glossy brochure.