WA loses title for Australia's most expensive tradies as boom moves on

WA remains one of the most expensive places for tradesmen.

A renovation boom in Victoria and New South Wales and easing property prices in Western Australia have seen the West lose its crown as home to the country's most expensive tradies, according to a new survey.

The data was collected from 52,000 job quotes by tradies on a website where people can advertise a job they want done by a tradie and pick from the quotes that come in.

The find-a-tradie site ServiceSeeking.com.au compared the hourly rate of tradies to get a standardised labour cost across industries.

This year, Victorian plumbers dethroned their West Australian counterparts, with a 21 per cent increase in their hourly rate to $91.21, compared to $89.91 for WA plumbers.

"Over the years, particularly a few years ago, WA was always at the top of the list," website chief executive Jeremy Levitt said.

"We had plumbers and electricians over there charging in excess of 100 bucks an hour.

"Their charge out rates have come right down as the resource boom has cooled and obviously property prices in WA have come off a lot.

"So fewer people renovating, less appetite for property compared to NSW and Victoria, which have really enjoyed a huge renovation boom. A huge amount of renovation work has been posted to our website, and that's driven up the hourly rates."

While Victorian plumbers now hold the top spot for the richest tradies over their WA mates, WA also holds the number three spot, with electricians charging $89.58 an hour.

They are followed by New South Wales, Queensland and South Australian plumbers. Electricians from NSW, South Australia and Queensland round out the top 10, along with South Australian builders.

Industry	Location	Hourly rate FY18	Hourly rate FY17	YOY change
1. Plumber	VIC	$91.21	$75.66	21%
2. Plumber	WA	$89.91	$90.14	-1%
3. Electrician	WA	$89.58	$88.59	1%
4. Plumber	NSW	$85.98	$74.25	16%
5. Plumber	QLD	$82.64	$79.77	4%
6. Plumber	SA	$80.90	$82.43	-2%
7. Electrician	NSW	$79.98	$73.64	9%
8. Electrician	SA	$79.13	$62.81	26%
9. Builder	SA	$77.76	$60.50	29%
10. Electrician	QLD	$75.15	$73.03	3%

Sparkies, plumbers attract biggest bucks

Mr Levitt said plumbers and electricians consistently charged the most of all trades.

"The reason for this is obviously skilled and licensed trades are harder to get into, so there are fewer tradies that have the patience to go out and get the licence," he said.

"Obviously there are a lot more set-up costs. On supply side there are fewer tradies, less competition, and on the demand side not that many people will attempt a plumbing or electrical services job as a DIY project. So on the demand side there's a high level of demand."

House painters, plasterers and tilers were consistently at the bottom of the list as the cheapest tradies, with lower set-up costs, more of them but also less demand, and more people attempting to do the jobs themselves.

In WA, the next most expensive tradies after plumbers and electricians were plasterers, but on a far lower hourly rate of $59.51. Then came builders, carpenters, landscapers, tilers and painters.