The construction industry, accounting for nearly 10% of the Australian economy, is currently facing a crisis. As highlighted by Four Corners in “Investigating Australia’s home building industry crisis” the sector is plagued by issues such as unfinished homes, unpaid tradespeople and suppliers, and a lack of government action. The piece from ABC’s flagship show paints a grim picture of the industry, with personal stories of dreams shattered due to builder insolvencies, disrupted supply chains, and skyrocketing input costs.
The Four Corners journalist describes some grim statistics. For example, suppliers of building products are losing up to 70% of their business when construction companies collapse. There are surprisingly thin margins (around 2%) that builders like Metricon make in the industry. As a result, they rely on volume, even for a product with such high risk. Amazingly, 30% of all corporate collapses are construction industry related. Worst of all, we see hardworking families lose tens of thousands of dollars worth of savings chasing their dreams only to lose it all.
At NotCentralised, we believe that technology, specifically blockchain and programmable payments, can play a pivotal role in addressing these challenges. We have designed and built solutions that leverage the power of blockchain and tokens, to efficiently, and reliably transform the construction industry.
In the coming days, we’ll share more about the TradeFlows protocol and our work with the recent RBA / DFCRC pilot project. We will highlight the way our use case relates to the construction industry, and how we see technology playing a significant role in fixing the issues Australia has.
