The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
I take on the role of an authoritative voice that fearlessly communicates truths drawn directly from my lived experiences. With a genuine sense of ownership, my insights are free from any hidden agendas – they truly belong to the audience. My stories and journey add remarkable value, the key now lies in harnessing its power effectively to help others.
My purpose is to create a new residential building industry. My mission is to inspire unshakable self-confidence in my colleagues in the industry, empowering them to orchestrate prosperous, enduring, and lucrative businesses that bring exceptional projects to fruition for our clients.
My goal is to foster a deeper comprehension among clients about the identity and functions of builders, redefining their perceptions.
The "Level Up" with Duayne Pearce Podcast
Why Building a Home in Australia Costs So Much: Real Data & Hard Facts from an Aussie Builder
Why is building a home in Australia so expensive? Aussie builder Duayne Pearce reveals the real reasons behind rising construction costs in 2025. Get real data, expert insights, and practical advice for homeowners, builders, and anyone interested in the Australian property market.
Learn about:
- Building costs in Australia 2025
- Construction price breakdowns
- Labor, materials, and government fees
- How to save money on your build Subscribe for more tips on home building, renovations, and real estate in Australia!
Check out the Duayne Pearce website here...
https://duaynepearce.com/
G'day guys. Welcome back to another episode of level up. We are back in the shed this afternoon for another cracking solo episode. Look, today's episode I really wanted to do.
Speaker 1:I've been wanting to talk about this for a little while, but it's all to do with. I'm sick and tired of hearing everybody the media, the government a lot of shit on social media about the cost of building. So I've actually I've done some homework for this podcast today and got some data and some numbers for you, because I think when you actually start looking at facts, reality hits home and it's like, as with most things, things the media is generally not correct with, um, what they're throwing around out there. So, um, you've heard me bang on a lot on this podcast about the cost of building and my belief is that the cost of building has continued to rise since the day that the first hammer was made and swung to hit a nail in. It will always continue to rise. It's just what happens. Everything in life increases, as I'm about to give you some examples. But the other thing that doesn't get spoken about is people's expectations, and expectations is it's actually at the, that's at the core, that's what's really driving the cost of building. But, um, we'll jump into it a bit more detail.
Speaker 1:So I've actually, before I get into my stats, so what I've actually done. I've had our accounts manager actually go and pull all the data out of two of our projects. So one project all. So both projects are very identical very similar size square meters, both three-story homes, both on very steep, difficult blocks of land, both architecturally designed, both with a very, very similar level of finish. So I thought thought, what a perfect opportunity. So the first house. Well, perfect opportunity to give you some true, real data. So what I did was got her to go back. So the one of the houses we built, or we completed the home, in 2010 and the other one we completed in late 2024 or very early 2025, so 15 years apart um, but these are actual costs. So this is real data from my building business. It's not um quotes or anything we've done. This is actual, real data. So finished cost, um, and yeah, I'm looking forward to getting into that with you because it's pretty eye-opening.
Speaker 1:But before I did that, I just wanted to, I guess, set the tone for this podcast with some real examples. So what I did? I jumped on Google and chat GTP and I've actually done a bit of homework and got a few things here for you just to set the tone of this podcast. So what I did and this is I've done all this based on brisbane. So in uh, in brisbane in 2010, the average cost, the medium house price, was four hundred and sixty thousand dollars. In 2025, the median house price is $1,090,000. In 2010, the average cost of unleaded fuel was $1.21. In 2025, the average cost of a litre of unleaded fuel is $1.91. In 2010, the average individual wage in Brisbane was $52,000. Now, in 2025, it actually didn't give me a single number. The average salary or wage for a single person is between $80,000 and $100,000.
Speaker 1:In 2010, here in Brisbane, the average cost for a family of four for groceries each week was $204. The average cost for a family of four groceries in 2025 is $2 270. I think that one's a fair bit out. I know our family spends a lot more than that on groceries, but anyway, this is what Google's given me. The next one I have for you is the average hourly rate for a construction worker. 2010 was $38. Now in 2025, it's $55.
Speaker 1:This last one I've got before I move on to the cost of building for me says a lot about how much we've changed in the last 15 years, and especially in the generations and our expectations around how we live our life and living beyond our means. Because what chat, gtp and google said to me when I asked them what was the average weekly spend on eating out and entertainment for the average family in 2010? It was 95. Now, in 2025, the average spend for a family each week for eating out and entertainment is 455. So, um, look, everything else on that list that I just went through was pretty much bang on double. So in the last 15 years, the median house price has increased a bit over double. The average or the general wage has increased a bit over double. The cost of groceries are not quite double, the hourly rate for workers not quite double, but the cost of living and what people are spending and living beyond their means is almost quadrupled. So, uh, I just wanted to use those to set the tone for what I'm going to go through now.
Speaker 1:So what I've done here, as I said before, I've got two jobs very, very similar, but 15 years apart, and the reason I wanted to talk through this is there's multiple reasons. Number one is I'm sick and tired of just all the media about the cost of housing, because it is far, far more than just cost increasing. As I said, people's expectations are completely different from 15 years ago to what they are now. Another huge thing that isn't getting spoken about enough is efficiencies and the amount of work that gets done on a daily basis, and I really think this is hurting, uh, every single one of us. It's costing all of us a lot of money because of inefficiencies and nowhere near the out. Like people just aren't putting the same output as they did, uh, in the past, and there's a few reasons for this.
Speaker 1:Like, I believe there's very few people that show up to work these days with intent. They don't show up with the intent to get a lot done. They don't show up with structure to get a lot done. They don't show up with a game plan for the day. I know back in the day when, well, even now, nothing's really changed, but back in the day when I was on the tools every single day, driving to work or even driving home in the afternoon, I would be planning my next day, or in the morning I'm planning that day and in my mind I knew exactly what I would get done for the day, and so many times I would have a team meeting with my team and sometimes I'd think I was crazy, but it was efficient. We had a plan, we executed it and we got it done. Nine times out of ten we actually got more done than what I had planned, whereas what I what I see happening a lot these days and on my own projects I talk to my supervisor about on a daily basis is we set plans, we set schedules, we set targets and very, very rarely do they get executed. We always happen to manipulate things, push things around, move things, because the output and the work isn't getting done as efficiently as it used to.
Speaker 1:And look, this isn't just me talking about this. Every single builder I talk to is complaining about this. Every single contractor I talk to is complaining about this. Every single builder I talk to is complaining about this. Every single contractor I talk to is complaining about this. Every single employee I'm talking to, sorry, employer I'm talking to is complaining about this, and, at the end of the day, that is all costing us a lot of money, and so it's another reason that I really I've been thinking about this for a few weeks and how I could do it.
Speaker 1:And then I was just thinking about all of what we used to do in the past and it just came to me a few nights ago about a job we've recently finished and a job we did 15 years ago and how similar they were and I thought what an incredible opportunity to actually we track all their data. We keep it all. So what an incredible opportunity to actually go back and compare some numbers. And what really surprised me by going through this is any items that would just supply, um, haven't actually increased the double that it appears that most things have doubled in the last 15 years. The percentage increase wasn't that much, but everything that includes labour has increased a lot.
Speaker 1:So I'll start running through a few. So the first one and this is just the way that the spreadsheet's been worked out in alphabetical order the first one is carpentry labour. So, like I said, these two particular jobs were very, very similar in square meterage, very similar in detail all lightweight claddings on the outside, all a carpentry, internal fit out, hanging the doors and all those sorts of things. We've always done our internal fit outs the same way. Like we hang our own doors, we fit our own hinges. We don't get any pre-hung rubbish. So very, very similar jobs and so, and the other thing to, I guess, just point out before I go into these numbers is all of these numbers are excluding GST. I don't like to work like that, but I know most people do and that's how our software the job from 2010,.
Speaker 1:The total amount of carpentry labour on the job was 94,834. For the carpentry labour on the project in 2025 is 160,497. So not quite double, but very close to it. So again, you can see that so many figures that I just talked about were almost double and it seems to be the same with carpentry labour. So that obviously has a bit to do with the hourly rates going up, but that also has a lot to do with the job just taking a lot longer to do than the hourly rates going up. But that also has a lot to do with the job just taking a lot longer to do than what it did 15 years ago. And you'll see, there's a, there's a pretty clear pattern with a lot of these, like with that double, double figure.
Speaker 1:So the next one's electrician. So and this is only electricians' labour, this doesn't include electrical fittings. So electricians' labour for our job in 2010 was 24,676. Our electricians' labour in 2025 is 50,168. So, again, that one's pretty much bang on um double. Uh.
Speaker 1:The next one I have to, which I think is another really good one, uh, this one was actually quite surprising, to be honest. Um. The next one is exterior soffits and cladding. So, as I both homes lightweight cladding FC products and again almost identical. The one in 2010 had a lot of 6mm FC with timber cover battens, quite a bit of matrix cladding and some weatherboard. The one we finished in 2025 um, it's very similar had some flat six mil fc with timber cover battens. Um, and then pretty much the majority of the job was um weatherboard, but and this is materials only so all the cladding for our job in 2010 was 13,799. All the cladding and soffit materials on our 2025 project was $37,047. So that one is pretty much bang on triple the price. So, yeah, obviously cladding and soffit materials have had a huge price increase in the last 15 years.
Speaker 1:The next one, which again is a material, one which and I hope you guys start to see some correlation with this, because when I was sitting down and going through this and I don't know if you can see my sheet on here, but like I've literally got two pages of numbers. So I've got a lot of data on here, but I've just gone through to pull out some ones that are pretty common and people will understand. But when I was going through and just highlighting them because they're not all in the exact same layout, it blew my mind a little bit just how the double and the triple worked, and this next one's a perfect example. So we just did external cladding materials and it was pretty much bang on triple.
Speaker 1:The next one is your internal fit out gear. So this is all your arched raves, skirtings, door jams, your internal doors and again, these jobs were very, very similar. So actually both of them had 62 by 19, just pencil round architraves, 116 by 19 pencil round skirtings and flush doors. They did have a the. The door handles was slightly different 15 years ago. We're still using quite a bit of old school knobs and things. The newer jobs got the levers, but all the internal fit out gear.
Speaker 1:Actually, just to clarify this a little bit more, this doesn't include shelving, because on pretty much every job we do, we get Civic or our cabinet makers do the rope shelving, our cabinet makers do the rope shelving. So in the job in 2010, all the internal fit-out materials were $5,605. In 2025, $15,795. So, look, you're going to see, as we go through this, like people are complaining that the cost of building is going up and builders are making a fortune. And yes, I can understand how they see that, because to run a successful business, we're charging a percentage on the total job cost and so obviously, if everything's going up, if everything across the everything's going up in Crete in, if everything across the board's going up, then as builders we're going to earn more money as well. But what people don't understand with that is the higher the dollar cost of the job, the more risk and the more liability that we have as builders. So it's only fair that we earn more money to make sure that we cover insurances and all that other costs that go with it.
Speaker 1:But the next one on my list, which I thought was actually good, was the framing materials. So we've always done stick frames. So both these jobs were all stick frame. They all had ply bracing sheets frame. They all had ply bracing sheets, or they both had ply bracing sheets. They both had two levels of subfloor system, so all your bearers and joists and they both used yellow tongue flooring. So again, very, very similar. The frame in 2010 was $45,665. All the frame material in 2025 was $77,701. So that is one of the only things on this list. So that's only an increase of $30,000. So I'm not sure what the percentage is there, but, um, nowhere near double or triple. Like some of these other costs.
Speaker 1:Um, this next one is like I, I, I I hate insurance. I hate how builders have to pay insurance on the on the works we do. I get that we need to pay it. I think it's a good thing that we need to pay it, but I can't stand how it's worked out. I'm not sure about other states of australia, but in in queensland, the way that we pay our insurance levies on our projects is an absolute rort, and this proves it. So our I can't remember what it was actually called back in 2010. It was, um, it was different to what it is now, but the home warranty insurance that we paid on our job back in 2010 and obviously the dollar value was different. So actually to, I guess, give you the total cost of the jobs the 2010 job was just under eight hundred thousand dollars. The 2025 job was just under $800,000. The 2025 job was just over $2 million. So, again, we're just over double. But the home warranty insurance that we paid on the job in 2010 was $2,577. The insurance we paid on the 2025 job was $16,469. So, as homeowners, this is things that we need to educate the homeowners and the clients that we work for, because that is a government body and that has increased by just over six times like it's it's it's a six multiplier in 15 years. And, as homeowners, like, we have to pay that to be able to build homes for you. So, like again, everyone's banging on about the cost of building some of the government the, the compulsory government charges that we have to pay to be able to build homes are the things that have increased the most in the construction industry.
Speaker 1:The next one's a supply and labor one, so painting. So, again, very similar size homes. Um, the painting the our painting contractors invoice in 2010 was 24 352 dollars. The painting in 2025 is 58 654. So that's again, um, a bit over double. Uh.
Speaker 1:The next one we're going to talk about is plumbing, and this one this one actually surprised me a bit. I double. The next one we're going to talk about is plumbing, and this one actually surprised me a bit. I thought it would have been increased by a little bit more. So this one is plumbing labour and materials for hot and cold water and plumbing stacks. It doesn't include all your plumbing fixtures toilets, taps and all those types of things but our plumbing invoice from our contractor in 2010 was $19,796. Our plumbing contractor's invoice in 2025 and is $31,569. And just to give you a little bit more detail on that one, that is the exact same amount of bathrooms, laundries, kitchens, the exact same amount of plumbing fixtures. So that is just a pure increase in labour and materials to install those items.
Speaker 1:This next one blew me away a little bit. So in 2010, we roofed the entire house. In 2010, we roofed the entire house. So all your your roofing buttons, your anicon blanket, your roof sheeting, your barge caps, your all your flashings, your fascia and gutter everything for $12,596 in 2025 almost the exact same square meterage and size project. The cost for those same items from our roofing contractor is $33,573. So, triple like. That's another one of those triple. So basically, in 15 years, the cost to do a roof has tripled.
Speaker 1:The next one it's only a small one, but I just wanted to throw it in here just to give you some idea was the internal stairs. So, like I said before, they were both difficult homes on three-story homes on a difficult site, but again, they both had very similar sets of stairs. So 2010 the internal polished grade timber stairs were 5,428. In 2025, they're $9,200. I only got two more to go for you, but I hope this is giving you a good indication of where we sit with our costings. And, like I said, this is real data. This is the shit that I don't see anybody else on social media, on real media in our industry, talking about. This is real data from two projects, actual cost.
Speaker 1:The next one is a massive one and it's windows. So in 2010 and look, on this one I'll tolerate a little bit because windows have definitely changed a lot but in 2010 we paid 25,576 for all the external windows, sliding doors, front door and everything on this project. In 2025, we paid $113,817. And look, I get that. The 2025 job did have a huge 12-meter sliding door in there, but apart from that, all the other windows were very similar. Both jobs had a lot of louvers, both jobs had multiple sliding doors and both jobs had a lot of double hung windows.
Speaker 1:So I actually, when I went back and actually went back through our google drive and pulled out the plans and compared these two jobs. I was actually quite blown away how similar they were, and the last one I was just going to talk to you about was joinery. So, again, very, very similar sized kitchens, bathrooms. The list of joinery items was almost identical. So kitchen pantry, vanities, robes. They both had a media room figure in there, because they both had cabinets in the media room and they both had, like shaving cabinets and things in the wet areas. So, uh, the 2010 job was 48 648. The joinery in the 2025 job was 124 800. So, yeah, um, two and a half times the cost.
Speaker 1:So, look, guys, that's the end of my list. I've got hundreds of items on here. I could go through, but they're the main ones and they're the ones that a lot of people can relate to the um. There was a couple more that I'd really like to go through, like I want to. I really wanted to go through and talk about footings and slab, just to compare um concreting rates and things. But I may do that in the future.
Speaker 1:But the way we used to price our jobs and and collater our data back in 2010 compared to now um, made it a lot harder for those ones. But, um, overall you can see that the cost, even though there's so much talk in our industry about the costs, has increased dramatically and people can't afford houses and all those types of things. We need to talk about what reality is, and that is that, as you can see from everything I've just gone through, in the last 15 years here here in Brisbane I'm basing all my data on Brisbane, south East Queensland in Australia everything on average has doubled in cost and even though the cost of building has a bit over doubled, everyone's wages has doubled. But what people, as I pointed out, what people are spending on entertainment and eating out has quadrupled. So people shouldn't be complaining about the cost of housing because you can't have both. If you want to be out every second night of the week, eating out, having takeaway, catching up with friends, going to shows, movies, all those types of things, but you also want to be able to have a brand new four bedroom house, two garage, three bathroom, then you've either got to work harder, get a better job that's going to pay you more, or you've got to live within your means.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I really wanted to point out as I said at the beginning of this podcast is the efficiencies, like a lot of those costs that, like I said, I've just gone through um material. Some materials have, as I pointed out, some materials have either doubled or tripled, but a lot of it is labor and with the labor it's far more to do than just the the cost of the labor. It's all the inefficiencies. We need our teams on site showing up with more intent. Um, and I think, look, I've had a few bad days in the last few days. Just I've really taken it personally that my team aren't quite getting done the amount of work that I expect to get done. And I've had a few tough conversations with both my supervisors and I think, at the end of the day, we need to start showing them more like we can't just keep talking about it. We've got to. We've actually got to get on the tools and show them this is how you get it done, this is how you plan your day.
Speaker 1:And, look, I'm not sure what's going on if it's in the water we're drinking or whatever. But something that's probably disheartened me a lot lately is even the older guys that have been taught hard, that got driven, like I did when I was an apprentice. They seem to be slowing down as well and they're not setting an example for the younger guys that are coming through. So we now have these younger guys that just have these expectations of what amount of work gets done each day. And look for me, it breaks my heart for the homeowners Like it's all good to run an efficient business and track all our data, but at the end of the day, we can't just keep increasing our prices to cover inefficiencies and people not working appropriately and getting enough done on our job site.
Speaker 1:So, look, I think I'm sure this podcast is going to stir up a can of worms. I think it's. These are discussions that need to be had, because the slower we get on site, it's just adding to the cost of building homes and sooner, sooner or later, something's going to have to give. Either people's expectations have got to come back down or people need to just start paying more. They need to realise that it just costs what it costs. But we can't just keep banging on about the cost of building and not actually deep diving into why the cost of building is what it is. So, yeah, look, hopefully I've given you some good advice today, or some good knowledge. Like I said this this is real data. Like this is data from two houses 15 years apart. Very, very similar, um, and, like I say all the time, the numbers don't lie. That's, that's the facts. Like that is what it is.
Speaker 1:So, guys, look, hope you've liked this podcast. If you've liked this podcast, if you've got any more questions or there's any other can of worms you want me to open, make sure you reach out, as always, like, share, subscribe. If you haven't been to my website yet, duanepeircecom checked out all of our merch. Make sure you jump on there and grab it so that you can be wearing it around and you can help me on my mission to create a new building industry. Look forward to seeing you on the next one. Are you ready to build smarter, live better and enjoy life? Then head over to livelikebuildcom. Forward, slash, elevate to get started. Everything discussed during the Level Up podcast with me, dwayne Pearce, is based solely on my own personal experiences and those experiences of my guests. The information, opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only, and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. We recommend that you obtain your own professional advice in respect to the topics discussed during this podcast.