If you've been holding off tiling a new floor or giving your house a fresh coat of paint, now could be the time to strike with the cost of hiring a tradesperson down almost 8 per cent in New South Wales.
With an average hourly rate of $43.70, painters are the cheapest tradespeople to hire, according to the quarterly Tradie Price Index released by ServiceSeeking.com.au on Wednesday.
However it's tilers who've been hardest hit over the past quarter, with their hourly rate dropping 13.9 per cent to $46 an hour - making them the second cheapest tradie.
Tradesmen in NSW are now earning $58.06, just over 4 per cent less than the national average of $60.55. Their earnings have fallen 7.5 per cent over the quarter, and are down 6.2 per cent over the last year.
"Tradie prices in NSW are being driven down by a slight cooling in the levels of demand for renovation services," said ServiceSeeking.com.au chief executive officer Jeremy Levitt.
He said the decreased demand correlated with the decline of stock on the housing market, being reported by real estate agents.
"Typically a lot of work is done around the time people are selling and buying, they're fixing up beforehand or putting their own touch on their new place."
The index compared a sample of 52,000 quotes submitted between January and March for building and renovation, carpentry, electrical, landscaping, painting, plastering, plumbing and tiling and paving.
Mr Levitt said competition was a big factor for prices, noting painters and tilers in NSW faced the most - with competition levels at 86 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively, above the national average.
By comparison plumbers, the highest paid tradesmen at $77 per hour, faced below average competition.
"Painters often have a bad run, as there are a lot of people out there that can do it," he said. "Whereas the likes of plumbers, electricians ... they need licences to ply their trade, that's something that reduces their numbers and allows them to charge more."
With residential construction having fallen at its fastest rate in 16 years, tradespeople are also having to compete for less work.
"The work is definitely drying up," said painter Bill Shahidi of Shahidi Painting and Decorating. "Since the end of last year things have been quietening down."
"I'm lucky I've been doing this for [20] years, I've got set clients who are happy to use me, but for people who don't have connections they can find it extremely hard to get work."
He added he was competing against an increasing number of painters offering cheaper labor to secure jobs.
In its most recent quarterly Trades Report, The Housing Industry Association (HIA) found that pressure on prices may be easing despite a shortage of workers in some trades.
The rise and fall of mining has played a key role in this, according to HIA senior economist Shane Garrett. While the boom led to a skills shortage in some "housing-specific trades" as young workers skipped apprenticeships to head to the mines, the downturn in recent years pushed more tradespeople involved in the likes of electrical work, site preparation and joinery to residential construction.
"We're also seeing more skilled workers coming from Adelaide, Darwin and Perth, where there is less home building activity."
Mr Garrett said while HIA's latest Trade Price Index recorded a national decline of 1.6 per cent, prices were still 0.5 per cent higher than a year earlier.
"Prices haven't fallen year to year, I'd say they are likely to continue growing, just at a more steady pace."
He said while the HIA expected new residential building to decline, renovation work was expected to increase in future years.
"There was a massive amount of homes built in the late 1980s and 1990s, that are increasingly going to need renovation work," he said. "With Melbourne and Sydney prices increasing sharply, they can use their home equity to borrow more for an extensive renovation."
"Then there are the people for whom moving house is becoming too expensive, and are staying put and doing a renovation."
