Understanding the patterns, characteristics and trends in the housing sector labour force in Australia-AHURI Positioning Paper No. 142

The background to this study is the mismatch between housing supply and demand in Australia. A failure of housing supply to keep pace with demand is associated with growing problems of housing affordability. The establishment of the National Housing Supply Council (NHSC) in 2008 has provided for policy focus on this problem. However, there is a lack of research and knowledge regarding both the demand and supply characteristics of housing in Australia. In particular, regarding housing supply, there is limited knowledge of the housing industry, including both new build and those parts of the industry which supply maintenance, retrofitting and renovation services to the existing stock. This dearth of understanding is particularly pertinent given current policy attention to both housing affordability and the need to improve the environmental and efficiency performance of housing, with its own implications for housing industry supply. This research seeks to address the following question:What are the key features and trends in the structure, conduct and performance of the core parts of the housing industry and what are the main dimensions of the labour force working in these parts in the context of considerable fluctuations in the level of activity in the housing industry?