Many Queenslanders left homeless by deadly floods last month will “absolutely not” be able to move back into their homes by Christmas, the state’s peak builders body says.
Thirteen people were killed and another man is missing and feared dead in the deluge, which also severely damaged at least 1800 properties and moderately damaged another 2500.
More than 1000 Queenslanders from 461 households have already been placed in emergency accommodation, with many more still trying to find shelter.
There have also been 135,697 insurance claims worth $2.05 billion related to the southeast Queensland disaster, according to the Insurance Council of Australia.
Master Builders Queensland deputy chief executive Paul Bidwell says there were 170,000 building projects in the state last year and flood repairs could add up to another 60,000 jobs.
He says insurers will “move heaven and earth” for their homeless clients but the state’s 73,000 contractors are incapable of repairing all the flooded homes by Christmas.
“Absolutely not, no, look I think it’s going to be a much much longer than a year and I’ve heard a couple of years,” Mr Bidwell told ABC radio on Tuesday
“One very pessimistic contact was talking about more than that … we don’t really have a clue at this point.
“Well, I’m sure the insurers do, and insurance builders are working on their program of work, but from an outsider looking in it’s it’s hard to get any visibility about what how long that will take.”
He said repairs and rebuilds hadn’t even started yet because builders needed to wait for months for damaged properties to dry out to reduce health and safety risks.
Meanwhile, the costs of building materials that was already rising due to inflation triggered by the pandemic, natural disasters and now the war in Ukraine will increase the cost of the flood jobs and likely further delay the repairs.
Mr Bidwell said subcontractors were benefiting from the intense pressure insurers were putting on the limited pool of contractors to repair flooded homes.
“I’ve heard of one instance of it already, a carpenter down the Gold Coast, first year out, so he’s newly minted, so he would normally get sort of $45 to $60 an hour as an ABN … with his company, and he was offered $100 an hour to go and start there tomorrow.”
