The availability of skilled tradespeople has deteriorated across Australia as home building activity strengthens, according to the latest HIA Trades Report.

HIA senior economist Tom Devitt says the HIA Trades Availability Index fell to -0.48 in the September 2025 quarter, down from -0.40 in the previous quarter, indicating a tightening supply of skilled workers.

“The availability of skilled tradespeople has worsened across Australia as home building pipelines expand again,” Tom says.

The report shows shortages are being driven by renewed home building activity, population growth and ongoing demand from renovations, non-residential and public infrastructure projects.

“With recovering home building pipelines on top of significant volumes of other work across the country, demand for skilled trades will only increase,” Tom says. 

Bricklaying saw the sharpest decline in availability, with Western Australia recording the largest shortages as new home commencements rose. Site preparation trades also recorded an 8.4% price increase over the past year.

Tom warned that without more skilled migration and stronger domestic training pathways, the situation is set to worsen.

Shortages were most severe in regional Queensland (-0.92) and Perth (-0.89), while bricklaying (-1.09), ceramic tiling (-0.86) and carpentry (-0.74) were the hardest trades to source.

Electrical trades were in equilibrium (+0.02), while plumbing (-0.20) and site preparation (-0.22) recorded moderate shortages.