Construction times in the capital have doubled in just over a decade, deterring people from building in the territory.
Data from Master Builders Australia has revealed the median time to build a freestanding home in the past year was 14 months, up from 7.5 months in 2010.
The figures had been trending consistently upward in that time. Townhouse construction times hit a peak of 19 months last year, but were now back to 13 - still five months longer than in 2010.
These figures were having real effects on tradies, who had to absorb costs, while home owners were left waiting for their builds to be completed, said Master Builders ACT chief executive Anna Neelagama.
"The builder and the home owner wear all the risk of any delays. They are wearing financial exposure," she said.
Ms Neelagama said this risk meant many people were opting not to build at all.
The construction time figures were from the time of planning approval only and did not factor in hefty delays in development application determination.
"When everyone is looking at interest rates, inflation and cost of materials across [significant] build times, that is factoring into decisions as to whether to move ahead with a build," Ms Neelagama said.
The federal government set a target of 1.2 million new homes to be built nationally by the end of the decade, including 21,000 in the ACT.
But construction delays are causing waning confidence in that figure being reached.
Commencement rates on Canberra houses dropped 9.4 per cent between the March and June 2024 quarters, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Across the 12 months to June, there had been a 34 per cent decrease.
The owner of Tuggeranong-based renovation company Rockford Property Solutions said this was evidenced by the fact that many smaller construction companies were "not as busy as they would normally be."
"It is because of the state of the economy," he said.
"People who are good at work, they do still tend to maintain a decent pipeline of work. But it might not be as lucrative at the moment as it would normally be and projects may not be as large as they would normally be."
Why such long delays?
National construction costs rose by 3.2 per cent across the year to September 2024, according to CoreLogic data.
But the company's economist Kaytlin Ezzy said construction costs were likely not the leading factor in delay times.
They spiked in September 2022 before taking a dip.
Instead, staffing and skills shortages were contributing to the blowout in construction times.
Multiple sources have told The Canberra Times staff had been cut from large construction companies this year due to costs.
One person claimed some tradespeople were overseeing 10 to 15 sites at once.
Another said training and retaining apprentices was challenging as a result.
Mr Crockford said given his smaller team and close-knit relationship with subcontractors, it was easier to "move fairly promptly" on projects.
"A lot of it comes down to the contractors you are using and what their general nature of work is," he said.
But Ms Neelagama said more policy was needed to improve the pipeline and ultimately bring more houses to market.
Industrial relations reforms, which Ms Neelagama described as fairly draconian ones, brought into the ACT were also factoring in.
"Fundamental to our conversations with political influencers in the coming weeks will be the health of the building and construction sector.
"Particularly, getting those 21,000 homes built and also ensuring we have a great pipeline of public infrastructure."
