• Geelong Building Solutions placed into liquidation 
• In FY22-23 about 3,000 Aussie builders collapsed

A home builder has collapsed owing close to a million dollars to creditors as every Australian state and territory fails to deliver on national housing targets.

Geelong Building Solutions Pty Ltd appointed liquidator Scott Andersen from Worrells on August 21, according to documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

The Ocean Grove-based builder has debts of $881,518 with the bulk owed to finance providers Shift Financial at $300,000, National Australia Bank at $250,000, and Prospa Advance at $143,000.

Company director Aaron Anstis said the firm managed to complete all outstanding house builds for their clients along with paying most of their suppliers and subcontractors but were unable to make loan repayments due to fewer new orders.

‘Around the end of 2020 and into 2021 with Covid and the fixed price contracts and costs skyrocketing, we got into some financial difficulty and borrowed money to try and get us through that period,’ Mr. Anstis told the Geelong Advertiser.

‘It just got to the point where with the economic downturn and not as much construction happening, we just didn’t have the new builds to continue with cash flow and an income to repay the debts for the banks.’

Mr. Anstis said it was only in the last month that he realised the firm was in a situation where external administration would need to be considered.

‘I do take some pride in the fact that I was able to get all of my clients into their homes even though that’s been a detriment to my own personal wealth,’ he said.

According to ASIC, in the last financial year nearly 3,000 Australian construction companies have collapsed. 

With a housing shortfall sending the price of homes sky-rocketing, questions have been asked whether the government can reach its ambitious new housing targets.

According to the Master Builders Association, the nation is likely to fall well short of its goal to construct 1.2 million extra homes by July 2029.

Every Australian state is lagging behind nationally-agreed housing targets as the federal government is accused of dragging its heels on addressing the national crisis.

Australia is on track to produce 1.03 million homes within that timeframe, a shortfall of 166,000 properties, new modelling released on Monday shows.

Master Builders’ latest forecasts predict that every state and territory will fall short of their National Housing Accord targets by 2029 under current conditions.

The three states to do the heavy lifting required to reach the national target – NSW, Victoria, and Queensland – are all well behind, but every jurisdiction is in trouble.

Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said the crisis would not be solved without ‘boldness and ambition’, labelling the situation an ‘unusual policy problem’.

‘Interest rates have risen sharply and this has a big impact on building starts… it won’t be solved by making speeches in Parliament House in Canberra. The solution sits in the real economy,’ she said.

‘We face a chronic shortage of construction workers… we need 90,000 more workers in the residential construction sector to get the houses built that we need.’

Opposition housing spokesman Michael Sukkar took aim at the government, saying just $3 billion of its $32 billion in housing-related promises had been distributed.

‘Labor has dragged its heels for more than two years on addressing their housing crisis and misleading Australians with farcical new funding announcements,’ he said.

‘It’s unclear how many dwellings have commenced construction, with no new homes believed to have even been completed.’

Committed to building 377,000 new homes across the next five years, NSW is only on track to produce 303,280 dwellings by July 2029.

Victoria is tracking around 21,000 houses short of its share, while Queensland is about 22,000 behind.

Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn said high inflation, interest rates, and supply constraints were delaying progress toward the long-term goal.

‘We are expecting the market to gradually recover over the next few years as the macroeconomic conditions improve, but more work is needed to address the housing shortfall,’ she said.

‘Federal, state, and territory governments have acknowledged the challenges around planning, workforce, and productivity, but we aren’t seeing enough flow through on the ground.’

Productivity in the building industry had plummeted 18 percent in the past decade, Ms. Wawn said.

Victoria has heaped extra pressure on itself, setting a target of 800,000 new homes in the next decade, up from the 307,210 it is required to build in the next five as part of the national goal.

In NSW, approvals and completions have consistently lagged the 75,000 annual figure required to hit the state’s target in recent times.

Premier Chris Minns said fixing a sluggish planning system was the only way NSW could meet the goals.

‘We’re under pressure to meet those targets, but it’s not for one reason, it’s for a whole range of reasons,’ he said.

Master Builders NSW executive director Brian Seidler said the federal government needed to expand the construction workforce to have any chance of reaching the 1.2 million-home target.

‘We need innovative approaches, including better apprenticeship incentives, reskilling migrants already in Australia, and launching an international campaign to attract skilled tradespeople,’ he said.