facing financial ruin after a slump, the age, page-8

Hanrahan.

Correct plenty of costs could come down. I went to a HIA presentation a while back and one of the presenters explained that in the cost of a new house and land package in Brisbane 36% was goverment/council fees and charges direct and indirectly (Starting with sgt 10% i suppose0, Melbourne was like 42%.

I dont think $40 an hour that we pay our carpenters is all that much. Not when they have to have be able to fill their cars to get to work (ie not public transport) and pay a mortage/rent at the high prices that everyone is tlaking about. I would like to be able to pay them more as I feel they deserve it but the current competetive climate will not allow it, as our margins are very thin currently, hence builders falling over everyhwhere of late.(probably a little bit of poor cashflow management too there)

Ask the lawyer if he will drop his $350hr charge.

But I do feel there is a trade or too that could come down in price. But it is only the bad ones that drop their prices usually, as the good ones stay busy, and we are agian starting to feel like there is a lack of quality trades around. We have our regular crew that we use to create the product we are looking for but when one of them is unavaible we are stuggling to find good fill in's.

When it was raining quite a bit at the start of the year two of our good carpenters went to mine sites and wont be back anytime soon. So situations like this are not going to see prices in labour come down that much.