Build Metric, a South Melbourne construction estimating and quantity surveying firm, received more than 1,500 enquiries from Australian builders and trade contractors in the six months to July 2026.
Monthly enquiries rose from 158 in February to 398 in June, a period in which builders across the country reported they could not fill estimating roles within their own businesses.
The surge reflects a deepening shortage in an occupation that rarely draws public attention.
Quantity surveying is rated in shortage in every Australian state and territory on the 2025 Occupation Shortage List.
While most commentary on the construction workforce gap has focused on tradespeople, the shortfall extends into the office roles responsible for pricing the work before it begins.
The scale of the problem is significant.
The construction workforce grew by just 0.9 per cent in the year to November 2025, while BuildSkills Australia estimates the industry needs 22 per cent more workers by 2028 to deliver the National Housing Accord’s target of 1.2 million new homes.
Without enough estimators to price jobs accurately and on time, builders risk losing tenders or, worse, submitting flawed numbers.
Cost is compounding the issue. A mid-level construction estimator typically commands a salary of around $125,000 a year, rising to approximately $175,000 in the first year once superannuation, recruitment fees, software licences and workers’ compensation are factored in.
For many small and mid-sized builders, that expense does not translate into full-time value.
A company submitting eight to ten tenders a month often cannot generate enough work to keep a single in-house estimator fully occupied.
“We are recruiting estimators out of the same pool our clients are, so I know what they are up against,” said Brett Kneebone, Director at Build Metric, who oversees operations and delivery across the company’s team of Australian estimators.
“The harder problem is that most builders cannot fill an estimator’s week.
“They either pay for capacity they only half use, or they underpay and lose that person inside a year.”
Build Metric’s response has been to offer outsourced estimating on a fixed-cost basis, preparing quantity takeoffs, bills of quantities, cost estimates and tender documentation for residential and commercial builders across the country.
Builders send through drawings and receive submission-ready pricing without the salary, recruitment and idle-capacity costs that come with hiring in-house.
The firm’s estimators work to a 98 per cent accuracy standard, a benchmark the company says is essential given how pricing decisions play out over the life of a project.
That accuracy matters because builders sign fixed-price contracts based on these figures, and any errors made at the quoting stage are carried through to completion.
According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, construction accounted for 3,472 of the 14,152 company insolvencies recorded nationally in the 2025-26 financial year, roughly one in four business failures, even as the overall insolvency rate recorded its first annual decline in five years.
Build Metric expects enquiry volumes to remain elevated through the remainder of 2026, as builders continue bidding into a growing housing pipeline without the internal capacity to price it themselves.
