Australian Construction Insights (ACI) February 2016 Research Snapshot – Insight into Knockdown Rebuild (KDR) activity suggests;
That KDR development can be understood as an upgrading in the housing stock, rather than an augmenting of the overall supply of dwellings to meet demand from population growth.
This “replacement stock” or one-for-one KDR activity will become increasingly important in Australia’s new home building landscape. That is, as the overall stock of housing grows, so too does the need to upgrade this stock into the future.
The HIA Housing 100 (top 100 builders in Australia by total number of builds), which predominantly takes in the activity of large volume builders, indicates a lower number of KDR builds and a lower percentage of overall stock being KDR going forward. The study does however suggest, “More KDR activity undertaken by small and medium-sized builders. These groups of builders are likely to be performing a large share of overall KDR activity”.
Given that new home building activity has risen significantly, big building companies are moving away from the complexities of KDR building work that brings inefficiencies into their workflow and revenue streams. This has created a massive opening in the market for specialised consultants like Knockdown Rebuild Melbourne and smaller consultative builders.
The urban sprawl places pressure on governments and agencies to provide adequate infrastructure. We can see the trend of much smaller blocks of land in the greenfield estates in Melbourne’s new outer suburbs. KDR activity has become popular amongst residents who wish to retain their living amenity of adequate services, access to public transport, convenience to reputable schools, locality to medical services and having a larger backyard. The options for people who wish to live on the traditional quarter acre has now become either a knock down rebuild project, or a tree change to the country.
