If you’ve bought a doer-upper or want to improve your existing home in Melbourne there’s good news, a new report says the state has the cheapest tradies in Australia.
The report appears on online trade quoting platform serviceseeking.com.au and says that in Victoria the price of a tradesperson has dropped by 1.7 per cent from this time last year.
The average price of a tradie in Melbourne is $55.62 an hour and that’s around 10 per cent cheaper than in Sydney where you’ll pay on average $61.19 an hour for a tradie.
Tradesperson costs in Western Australia are even higher, with the average price there surging to $68.80 an hour, according to the figures from the quarterly Renovation Consumer Price Index.
While the average price of trade services in Victoria is cheaper than elsewhere, there are some individual trades that have gone up in price, including carpentry and plumbing,
Plumbers in fact are the most expensive tradespeople in Melbourne, with an average hourly rate of $75.16.
Carpentry services have had the biggest rises to their cost of service, climbing to an average hourly rate of $51.51, while flooring services took a big hit this year, falling by around 18 per cent to just $28.27 an hour.
Jeremy Levitt is the chief executive at serviceseeking.com.au and he says the figures show Melbourne has some of the best value tradespeople in Australia and it’s a great time for people who want to upgrade or renovate their home.
Mr Levitt told News.com in other parts of the country the lack of supply of skilled tradies had driven up prices.
“Australia is being swept up in a renovation boom as the increasing demand for home renovations outstrips the available supply of tradesman to do the work, pushing prices to higher levels than ever before,” he said.
