While much of the construction sector has maintained a semblance of business as usual, small residential builders have felt the strain of COVID-19.
A survey from Master Builders Australia found an average of 40 per cent of forward planned work had been lost.
Master Builders ACT CEO Michael Hopkins said small residential and renovation builders had experienced the biggest impact.
"For those very small builders that don't have the forward pipeline of work that they thought they may have, that's where we would expect they would be probably reducing hours of their staff or even standing down or making redundant some staff," he said.
"It would have a direct impact on the livelihoods of the business owners. It's often the owner of the building business is the builder themselves."
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Mr Hopkins welcomed the ACT government's announcement to bring forward infrastructure projects but called for the "removal of red tape" to speed up approval processes.
"The MBA and other industry groups have also requested the government provide a six month waiver of land tax and stamp duty, and waive lease variation charges for any project ready to commence construction within six months," Mr Hopkins said.
He expected the biggest downturn for the sector in two months when current projects wrapped up.
ACT Planning Minister Mick Gentleman said the territory was "well placed" to push forward new developments thanks to the early adoption of an electronic planning system.
Mr Hopkins said a backlog of development applications, blamed last year for slowing the sector, remained a concern but the government was quickly working through them.
There are currently 228 active DAs with 56 per cent of applications decided within the 40-day time limit.
- For information on COVID-19, please go to the ACT Health website or the federal Health Department's website.
- You can also call the Coronavirus Health Information Line on 1800 020 080
- If you have serious symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, call Triple Zero (000)
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