With over half the population under lockdown restrictions across multiple states in Australia, the outlook is grim for the rest of the year as the crisis deepens across all business sectors. Victoria has now crossed a grim milestone of 200 lockdown days since the beginning of 2020. As resilient as any business or industry can be, it is impossible to be immune to such a globally catastrophic event.
As mentioned in previous articles, some of the supply-chain disruptions are only starting to be felt in 2021, as stockpiled supplies start to run out and prices adjust to reflect the short supply coupled with skyrocketing demand. The data tells us that we are unfortunately yet to experience the worst. An overdue global market correction coupled with excessive stimulus pumped into the global economy is creating the perfect storm for some spectacular market volatility in the very near future.
Widespread pain can be felt in the construction industry as prices continue to soar due to the shortage of both raw materials and labour. A small reprieve came in March 2021 as the HomeBuilder scheme ended, with new home sales more than halved in April of 2021 compared to the previous month. Regardless, there’s an expectation that the prices will continue to increase, which ultimately puts a real burden on renovators and new homeowners. What is worse, the lead-time to even start some of the jobs is pushed out months in the future, dealing a double blow to the end customers.
In such turbulent times, one must navigate and pre-plan every move to ensure appropriate margins are put in place both financially and also in regards to the length of time any work will take to complete. All contractors and tradies are inadvertently affected by supply chain disruptions across the board, and it is the joint responsibility of both the contractor and the customer to be upfront about agreeing to the right expectations on the deliverables.
If you are thinking about carrying out renovations in your bathroom, kitchen, staircase or balustrade, reach out to Simply Frameless and we will promise to be upfront with regards to the quoted expectations and deliverables to ensure quality is not compromised.