Master Builders Building and Construction Forecasts
Tasmania’s building industry had already been doing quite well in the latter years of the 2010s
decade. Then came the pandemic and conditions soared to a whole new plain. During 2020–21, the
number of new detached house starts in Tasmania surged by 43.8 per cent. What’s really remarkable
is that this was on top of three years of growth during the preceding years. Tasmania’s 3,930
detached house starts during 2020–21 was easily higher than in every single year since records
began back in 1969.
Perhaps the only cloud to this silver lining is that some of the gain for detached houses was at the
expense of medium-high density homebuilding. Medium-high density dwelling starts had risen to an
all-time high of 500 during 2017–18. In 2020–21 just 105 new homes were commenced in this part
of the market which was the lowest in 20 years. Clearly, the detached house boom has squeezed out
other parts of the homebuilding market