René Muschter
Research Expert covering Industry & Mobility
Construction industry in Australia - statistics & facts
Australia’s construction industry is a key contributor to the national economy, employing over one million people across various segments. Sector-wise, the value of construction work in the private sector was significantly higher than that of its public counterpart. In 2024, the industry’s gross value added exceeded 175 billion Australian dollars, continuing the upward trend since 2021. With a growing population comes the need for more residential housing, commercial buildings, social spaces, and infrastructure. While the construction and maintenance of buildings and infrastructure nationwide is vital, the industry faces several obstacles, including material and project cost escalation, skilled worker shortages, and high project deferral and abandonment rates due to lack of funding. Alongside this, affordability continues to outweigh sustainability targets in the sector.
While Australia’s construction industry growth remains slow, the outlook for the residential segment is becoming more positive, with an acceleration expected in the coming years following a static period. Non-residential activities, on the other hand, are expected to stay resilient but witness subdued growth. Infrastructure construction is set to continue its boom and start to level off in 2026.
Can Australia’s housing crisis be fixed?
Construction activities for residential projects vary across Australia’s states and territories, with New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland being the country’s construction hotspots due to their higher population densities. The value of residential construction work completed across Australia surpassed 100 billion Australian dollars in 2024, marking a rise from the previous year. While Australia’s residential housing stock increased in 2024, the country’s disparity between residential building work completed and housing demand continues to be a major challenge despite the government’s goal of providing a sufficient supply for its population. From April 2025 to March 2027, the introduction of a foreign buyer ban on established residential properties hopes to provide some relief, despite temporarily exacerbating the issue as foreign investors rush to beat the April ban.Non-residential building activities
In the non-residential construction segment, encompassing commercial buildings such as offices, retail outlets, and industrial facilities, activities remained relatively stable. Recent construction focused primarily on offices, warehouses, education buildings, retail and wholesale trade spaces, and health facilities. The value of construction work on warehouses in Australia amounted to over 8.9 billion Australian dollars in 2024, with mounting demand attributable to the pandemic-induced e-commerce boom.Australia’s infrastructure pipeline
Infrastructure construction encompasses various projects to construct and improve transport, water, telecommunications, and energy structures and networks. In the 2024 financial year, the value of infrastructure engineering construction work completed across Australia amounted to over 60 billion Australian dollars. Regarding upcoming projects, energy, social, and transport-related projects were the leading types of major infrastructure pipeline projects in the early stages of planning as of February 2025, with around 70 energy projects in the prospective stage awaiting approval and funding. Projections show Australia's major infrastructure pipeline expenditure in the first quarter of 2025 would primarily focus on energy, rail, and road infrastructure development, with estimated spending across all pipeline projects of almost 19 billion Australian dollars.While Australia’s construction industry growth remains slow, the outlook for the residential segment is becoming more positive, with an acceleration expected in the coming years following a static period. Non-residential activities, on the other hand, are expected to stay resilient but witness subdued growth. Infrastructure construction is set to continue its boom and start to level off in 2026.
