Victoria faces housing quality crisis amid construction boom

Victoria’s home building industry is grappling with a surge in defects and inefficiencies as it struggles to meet ambitious housing targets, according to industry expert Gabriel Yousif.

Mr Yousif, director of Fortier, has called for urgent reforms to the inspection process for newly built homes, warning that the current system is failing to keep pace with the volume of construction.

“A revision of the current inspection process on newly built homes is long overdue. Homes across Victoria could be ticking timebombs of complacency and errors,” Mr Yousif said.

The Victorian Building Authority’s latest Proactive Inspections Report found compliance risks in 39 per cent of inspected homes. Extrapolating this data, Mr Yousif estimates that almost 20,000 homes built in Victoria in 2023 may have compliance risks.

Mr Yousif proposes mandating an additional inspection at the pre-plaster stage, arguing it could significantly improve construction quality and safety.

“One $500 inspection could save thousands in building cost blowouts and potentially hundreds of thousands for the home owner further down the track,” he said.

The proposed extra inspection would allow for early detection of errors, particularly in electrical and plumbing work, before they are concealed by plasterboard.

Mr Yousif outlines several benefits of this approach:

Improved quality and safety of homes
Reduced costs by catching mistakes early
Improved project completion times
A cultural shift towards greater accountability in the industry

He warns that without these changes, Victoria risks falling short of its housing targets, with project timelines blowing out and resources being wasted.

“As Victoria’s home builders put their collective shoulder to the wheel and provide much-needed housing, there must be a shift towards accountability and improving the quality of our work,” Mr Yousif concluded.

This call for reform comes as Victoria’s construction industry faces multiple challenges, including skilled labour shortages, material availability issues, and interest rate pressures.