Crunch to Confidence: Queensland Builders Start to Regain Nerve

Queensland’s construction crunch is showing its clearest signs yet of an easing in delivery risk, with contractors winding back hefty delay contingencies. And while there are still challenges ahead as the sector gears up for a once‑in‑a‑generation pipeline of Olympic‑fuelled projects, it is a glimmer of good news. New data from Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB) points to not only a significant shift in confidence but a productivity uplift off the back of a much clearer and more predictable delivery path. It comes after years of severe disruption—where extreme weather, supply chain volatility, subcontractor risk and industrial relations tensions forced builders to routinely factor in crippling delays to project contracts. “Back probably a year, two years ago, we were seeing programs being developed by contractors that factored in up to 40 per cent delay contingencies,” RLB Queensland director Neal Taylor said. Now, according to RLB’s analysis of recent Brisbane-based projects, that risk pricing is starting to unwind. “What we now have seen, probably since late last year and the start of this year, is an improvement in the contractors’ sentiment and they’re looking at reductions [in delay contingency buffers] down to 25 per cent or in that ballpark,” Taylor said. By comparison, pre-Covid contractors would allow for about 15 per cent non-claimable delays due to a range of factors. Taylor said the recalibration was being driven by a calmer industrial relations backdrop in the wake of a landmark inquiry into the CFMEU as well as a shift in weather patterns from a La Niña system into a drier El Niño period. For developers, planners and financiers, the implications are significant. Lower time risk feeds directly into feasibility models, reduces preliminaries and financing costs, and improves bankability for large-scale schemes. Over the past few years, Taylor noted, productivity on many sites had been severely constrained. ▲ The SEQ recalibration is being driven by a calmer industrial relations backdrop as well as a shift in weather patterns into a drier El Niño period, RLB said. For a Brisbane project constructed between 2020 and 2025, RLB found productive days accounted for 60.5 per cent of the construction program, with inclement weather (19 per cent), subcontractor and supply chain (11 per cent), and industrial relations (8 per cent) the major contributors to productivity delays. Anecdotally, he said, site productivity had deteriorated to the point where extracting just three days of production out of a five-day week had become commonplace, causing overheads to balloon. Industrial relations pressures alone stripped around three working weeks from construction programs each year. But weather had been the single largest culprit for productivity loss, Taylor said. In a region that would typically allow for 10 per cent to 12 per cent weather-related downtime, he said recent years have pushed that closer to 19 per cent, driven by repeated flooding and prolonged rain events across South-East Queensland. “We’re heading for drier times now with the El Niño cycle expected to restore a measure of normality… and, with the improvement in the industrial relations environment, it signals better outcomes for the industry as the construction landscape experiences more predictable programs.” The renewed confidence was already manifesting in changing site behaviours, Taylor said. To claw back time, recover momentum and maximise the available working week, contractors are increasingly reintroducing regular Saturday work and, on certain projects, executing double shifts. “When contractors are willing to add shifts, it means they are recovering time, maintaining momentum and making better use of the available working week,” he said. ▲ Rider Levett Bucknall Queensland director Neal Taylor ( left ) and Queensland Major Contractors Association chief executive Andrew Chapman. For the heavy hitters, this operational pivot has arrived not a moment too soon, with Queensland Major Contractors Association (QMCA) chief executive Andrew Chapman noting that these recovered days were absolutely vital for the state’s broader economic delivery. “Every additional productive day matters as the state faces a record major projects pipeline and ongoing pressure to deliver housing, transport, energy and Olympic infrastructure,” he said. To capitalise on these incremental gains, industry advocates are urging a systemic overhaul of risk allocation and resourcing. The focus must shift toward long-term stability and smarter contracting models as the state’s pipeline accelerates. “The key now is to turn early improvement into sustained performance,” Chapman said. “That means maintaining a more stable industrial relations environment, establishing collaborative procurement and delivery as the norm, clearer project certainty, improving access to skilled labour, and ensuring procurement settings support efficient delivery rather than simply shifting risk down the supply chain.” Achieving these operational efficiencies will require a unified approach to managing looming capacity constraints and relentless demand. Bridging the gap between the state’s vision and on-the-ground reality demands concerted action from all stakeholders, Chapman said. “Queensland has an enormous infrastructure opportunity ahead, but the industry cannot deliver it on ambition alone.” ▲ Construction calendar delay breakdowns based on data from a recent project in Brisbane, built between 2020 and 2025. Weekends, etc, excluded. Source: RLB As for the clear signs of a shift in confidence and productivity uplift, the timing could hardly be more critical. An upswing in development applications across Brisbane and South-East Queensland is already evident as the market positions for the 2032 Olympic Games and associated infrastructure and urban renewal. Taylor said as projects moved from concept to committed delivery, contractor pricing was expected to become more competitive and “sharpen their pencils” once schemes genuinely become “the real thing”. But he also cautions that the next phase carries its own risks, with the sector still in a state of major regulatory and industrial overhaul, and squeezed by a massive pre-Olympics building pipeline and projected deficit of 35,000 skilled workers. “We need all the help we can get,” Taylor said. “We’ve still got some issues that we need to sort out, for sure.”

Construction
Phil Bartsch
Wed 08 Jul 26

Crunch to Confidence: Queensland Builders Start to Regain Nerve

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