A Queensland building giant says surplus demand for construction is making companies go broke.Chairman Scott Hutchinson predicts more builders and companies will go bust in the near future.
Mr Hutchinson said two years ago he took on a large number of fixed-price jobs, only for costs to increase 30 to 40 per cent due to efficiency losses and rising material costs.He said attempts to blame the unions were a "red herring" since, in his view, the real problem lay in the surplus demand and the shortage of workers.
"The construction costs are so high that that's forced the sale price up to a million dollars," he said.Mr O'Rorke said the only thing his business would be able to do without government subsidy was "premium apartments in premium locations for wealthy people". "The advice we had was that a more effective way to increase supply was to provide a first home owner grant to people buying a new home," he said.