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Technology

Steam Deck Availability to Improve Faster than Expected

Steam Deck Availability to Improve Faster than Expected

Steam Deck Availability to Improve Faster than Expected Cover

In a recent twitter posts, Steam Deck surprised fans with news that Steam Deck availability will improve by the end of the year. People with Q4 reservations will be bumped up to Q3. People with reservations for early next year will be bumped up to Q4 of this year.

Steam released the Steam Deck earlier this year, and it quickly became one of the most anticipated consoles in recent history. The Steam Deck is a hand-held console similar in form to the Nintendo Switch. Manufactured by Valve, the Steam Deck boasts enough processing power to run AAA games right in the palms of users’ hands. It also allows players access to their Steam library anytime anywhere.

However, like many of its fellow consoles, they faced many difficulties with procurement of parts. Chip shortages and manufacturing delays due to COVID-19 forced Steam to push the release of the console to February of this year. The console was supposed to release in fall of 2021.

The good news is Steam Deck availability will improve sooner than anticipated. Like with other consoles on the market, production restrictions lifting will allow Steam to produce more consoles faster than expected. On their recent blog post, Steam shared the news that all reservations will be bumped up. Those with reservations in Q4 will receive their Deck in Q3. Those with reservations in Q1 of next year will be moved to Q4 of this year.

Steam clarified that this is only for those with current reservations. Any orders placed in the future will automatically be added in the Q4 bucket. If they are unable to fill those new orders, they will move them to Q1 of next year.

SOURCES: TwitterSteam

Categories
Sports

‘Keep pushing’: boxer Tina Rahimi went from casual classes to Commonwealth Games in five years | Boxing

Five years ago, Tina Rahimi wanted to get a little fitter. Maybe lose a bit of weight. So she convinced one of her gym mates to sign up for a boxing class with her.

“I thought, you know, boxing will be fun. We’ll try it out,” she says.

They joined a female-only boxfit-style class in Sydney’s Greenacre, and were quickly motivated. They were both doing pretty well. Rahimi looked forward to every single session. In a matter of weeks, she wanted more. Something about the sport had drawn her in. So she convinced her friend of her again to move up a class, to the mixed adults. To spar.

“And I just – I just fell in love. I didn’t even know you could compete. I thought it was only professionals. ‘Cause I wasn’t really into boxing before, I only knew Mike Tyson. I didn’t know there was, like, current local competitions. Until I went to one and I was like ‘Oh my God, this is so exciting’.”

Six months after her first boxercise class, Rahimi stepped into the ring. After that first bout, “I was, like, ‘I wanna fight. I wanna fight.’ I could not wait to jump back in.”

Now, Rahimi is considered one of the best female boxers in the country. In a matter of days, she will represent Australia in the 57kg female category at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

(LR top) Ridge Barredo, Sharni Williams, Maurice Longbottom, Ellie Cole, (LR bottom) Charlotte Caslick, Jake Lappin and Tina Rahimi in Sydney.
(LR top) Ridge Barredo, Sharni Williams, Maurice Longbottom, Ellie Cole, (LR bottom) Charlotte Caslick, Jake Lappin and Tina Rahimi in Sydney. Photograph: Matt King/Getty Images

When Guardian Australia video-calls Rahimi, it’s 9am in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she and the rest of the boxing team are in training camp before the Games. Training tapers off before competition, but she has done two hours of sprints today already. In another two hours, there’s sparring.

Sitting inside a bare, beige room, Rahimi is all smiles. There is little of the pugilist in her face – she could be mistaken for a YouTube makeup artist; perfect brows, long lashes and glossy manicured nails slide into view as she gesticulates – which is often. She speaks rapidly, and with warmth, frequently splicing sentences with a rhetorical “you know what I mean?”

Before boxing, Rahimi had done the odd bit of school sports. If there was an athletics carnival, she’d have a go (“I wasn’t really great”) and for a couple of years in her early teens she played football. Her dad de ella, who drove her to high school matches, had always been athletic – a champion wrestler in Australia and Europe in the 1980s and 1990s. Now, “he’s like: ‘You have my blood in you. Make me proud.’”

When Rahimi’s placement on the team was announced, making her the first female Muslim boxer to represent Australia, media requests flooded in. It was overwhelming, she says.

“I was like, ‘Oh wow. This is a lot.’ I just feel like I’m a normal person, you know what I mean?”

“I know that because I look different and I dress differently, it’s going to get a bit more attention. I mean, that’s why it kind of blew up.”

But she hopes her success can show others that how you look or dress doesn’t matter. “It all comes down to how hard you work, how disciplined you are, and how bad you want something.”

And Rahimi wants it bad.

Tina Rahimi at Brotherhood Boxn Gym in Sydney.
Tina Rahimi at Brotherhood Boxn Gym in Sydney. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Before Belfast, she was training three times a day, six days a week. Although the schedule is lighter now, she is far from home and it is still grueling, she says.

“Like, I’ll be really honest: I’ve raised a few times here.”

“It was actually yesterday. I had a sparring session and I didn’t feel like I did the best that I could. It gets like that. Sometimes you’re tired. I walked out of the sparring session, and I was like ‘oh, I don’t feel like I did that great’, and I just sat down and just cried.

“Everyone sees all the pain that you go through. Everyone can kind of relate. But at the end of the day, it’s that battle that you have within yourself.”

She knows the women she will be competing against want to win just as much as she does. She knows they’re training their arses off for that gold medal. She knows the coming fights will be like a war, she says. “Every single fight.”

“You’ve always got to… feed yourself positive thoughts,” she says. “Yeah, you can cry here and there. You know, let it out. But you’ve gotta not let that get into your head. And just keep going. Keep pushing.”

Tina Rahimi.
Tina Rahimi. Photograph: James Gourley/AAP

Now, just days away from the Games, Rahimi says she is feeling strong. She feels she has a “natural strength”, and has been told so by male boxers she’s sparred against. So she’s focussing on perfecting her technique. Her jab from her is good, she says. It’s the best punch you can throw, in her opinion. Her right cross by her is good too, “when it lands”. It is the discipline of perpetual improvement, of learning, she says, that first drew her to the sport and, while “it’s so hard”, it keeps her going too. Even in the moments she hates it, she says, afterwards she feels amazing. “I just feel like I’ve accomplished something.”

“I just love it! I just love the feeling,” she says, searching through a smile for the words to explain.

“It’s that I know that I can push myself more than you can push yourself. I won’t give up. You know what I mean? I know that I’ll be the last person to give up in there.”

Categories
Australia

Four ‘illegal boat intercepts’ in Australia as economic unrest grows in Sri Lanka

Four people-smuggling boats from Sri Lanka have been intercepted in Australian waters as economic unrest grows in the south-east Asian country.

“Operation Sovereign Borders” carried out by Australia’s Border Force released a monthly report revealing four boats with a total of 125 people onboard were intercepted in June.

“All 125 passengers and crew were safely returned to Sri Lanka in close cooperation with the Sri Lankan Government,” the report said.

People walk to work in the morning amid fuel shortage in Colombo.
People walk to work in the morning amid fuel shortages in Colombo. (AP)

Former home affairs minister Karen Andrews linked the interceptions of the boats to the new government’s immigration policies instead of the growing upheaval and economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

She also claimed it is the largest number of boat intercepts since 2015.

“Today the Australian Border Force released a report showing the largest number of boats interceptions since 2015,” Andrews’ tweet read.

“Labor should not be weakening our borders by abolishing Temporary Protection visas.”

Protesters, one carrying national flag, storm the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office. (AP)

The protests underscored the dramatic fall of the Rajapaksa political clan that has ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.

At the heart of the protests is Sri Lanka’s economic crisis as the country has run short of money to pay for imports of basic necessities such as food, fertilizer, medicine and fuel for its 22 million people.

The government, led by interim President Ranil Wickremesinghe, is in the process of preparing a debt restructuring plan, a condition for an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout plan.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil traveled to Sri Lanka in June and met with the country’s foreign minister.

Protesters shout slogans before storming the Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office. (AP)

Following the meeting the pair said in a statement, “the two Ministers recommitted their resolve to continue working together to thwart people smugglers and to prevent the loss of life and risk to livelihoods of innocent people.”

Protesters swarm presidential home as Sri Lanka enters political vacuum

Categories
US

California and Montana wildfires explode in size, forcing evacuation orders | Wildfires

Wildfires in California and Montana exploded in size amid windy, hot conditions, forcing evacuation orders as they quickly encroached on neighborhoods.

In California’s Klamath national forest, the fast-moving McKinney fire, which started Friday, went from charring just over 1 sq mile (1 sq km) to scorching as much as 62 sq miles (160 sqkm) by Saturday in a largely rural area near the Oregon state line, according to fire officials.

The fire burned down at least a dozen residences and wildlife was seen fleeing the area to avoid the flames. At least 2,000 people were told to evacuate.

Meanwhile in Montana, the Elmo wildfire nearly tripled in size to more than 11 sq miles within a few miles of the town of Elmo. And roughly 200 miles to the south, Idaho residents remained under evacuation orders as the Moose fire in the Salmon-Challis national forest charred more than 67.5 sq miles in timbered land near the town of Salmon. It was 17% contained.

A significant build-up of vegetation was fueling the McKinney fire, said Tom Stokesberry, a spokesman with the US Forest Service for the region.

“It’s a very dangerous fire, the geography there is steep and rugged, and this particular area hasn’t burned in a while,” he said.

“It’s continuing to grow with erratic winds and thunderstorms in the area and we’re in triple digit temperatures,” said Caroline Quintanilla, a spokeswoman at Klamath National Forest.

The California governor, Gavin Newsom, declared a state of emergency Saturday as the fire intensified. The proclamation allows Newsom more flexibility to make emergency response and recovery effort decisions and access federal aid. It also allows “firefighting resources from other states to assist California crews in battling the fires”, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

With red flag warnings into effect for the region and lightning predicted over the next few days, resources from all over California were being brought in to help fight the region’s fires, said Stokesberry, the US Forest Service spokesman.

McKinney’s explosive growth forced crews to shift from trying to control the perimeter of the blaze to trying to protect homes and critical infrastructure like water tanks and power lines, and assist in evacuations in California’s northernmost county of Siskiyou.

Deputies and law enforcement were knocking on doors in the county seat of Yreka and the town of Fort Jones to urge residents to get out and safely evacuate their livestock onto trailers. Automated calls were being sent to land phone lines as well because there were areas without cell phone service.

Over 100 homes were ordered evacuated and authorities were warning people to be on high alert. Smoke from the fire caused the closure of portions of Highway 96.

The Pacific Coast Trail Association urged hikers to get to the nearest town while the US Forest Service closed a 110-mile section of the trail from the Etna Summit to the Mt Ashland Campground in southern Oregon.

Oregon state representative Dacia Grayber, who is a firefighter, was camping with her husband, who is also in the fire service, near the California state line when gale-force winds awoke them just after midnight.

The sky was glowing with strikes of lightening in the clouds, while ash was blowing at them, though they were in Oregon, about 10 miles (about 16 km) away. Intense heat from the fire had sent up a massive pyrocumulonimbus cloud, which can produce its own weather system including winds and thunderstorms, Grayber said.

“These were some of the worst winds I’ve ever been in and we’re used to big fires,” she said. “I thought it was going to rip the roof top tent off of our truck. We got the hell out of there.”

On their way out, they came across hikers on the Pacific Coast Trail fleeing to safety.

“The terrifying part for us was the wind velocity,” she said. “It went from a fairly cool breezy night to hot, dry hurricane-force winds.”

In western Montana, the wind-driven Elmo fire forced evacuations of homes and livestock as it raced across grass and timber, according to The National Interagency Fire Center, based in Idaho. The agency estimated it would take nearly a month to contain the blaze.

Smoke shut down a portion of Highway 28 between Hot Springs and Elmo because of the thick smoke, according to the Montana Department of Transportation.

Crews from several different agencies were fighting the fire on Saturday, including the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Fire Division. Six helicopters were making drops on the fire, aided by 22 engines on the ground.

In Idaho, more than 930 wildland firefighters and support staff were battling the Moose fire Saturday and protecting homes, energy infrastructure and the Highway 93 corridor, a major north-south route.

A red flag warning indicated that the weather could make things worse with the forecast calling for “dry thunderstorms,” with lightning, wind and no rain.

In Hawaii, fire crews and helicopters have been fighting flames Saturday evening on Maui near Paia Bay. The Maui county emergency management agency said roads have been closed and have advised residents and travelers to avoid the area. It is unclear how many acres have burned. A red flag warning is in effect Sunday.

Meanwhile, crews made significant progress in battling another major blaze in California that forced evacuations of thousands of people near Yosemite national park earlier this month. The Oak fire was 52% contained by Saturday, according to a Cal Fire incident update. But amid scorching temperatures the danger wasn’t entirely over, with structures and homes at risk until the blaze has been completely extinguished.

The fires come as scorching temperatures bake the Pacific north-west, the west remains patched in record drought, and severe storms sent flash floods surging across several states. In Kentucky, flash floods have claimed the lives of at least 25 people in what experts have called a 1-in-1,000 year rain event.

Categories
Business

RBA rate rises tipped to slow bank mortgage growth

RBA rate rises tipped to slow bank mortgage growth

“While we are now experiencing a return to more normal interest rates than what has been observed over the past few years; increased rates will be impacting many household budgets,” Hyman said.

The signs new lending is off its highs come as financial markets expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise the cash rate from 1.35 per cent to 1.85 per cent this Tuesday, in an attempt to force down inflation.

For the big-four banks, rising interest rates tend to widen profit margins, but analysts also expect higher bad debts, alongside slower growth in the $2 trillion mortgage market.

Macquarie analyst Victor German is forecasting housing credit growth to fall sharply to 2.2 per cent a year by the middle of 2023, from annual growth of almost 8 per cent in June, citing New Zealand’s experience, where lending dropped in response to higher rates.

“If we are heading into an environment where credit growth is going to be slow for a long period of time, it does have a substantial impact on the earnings outlook and the valuation of banks,” said German, who has more bearish estimates on credit growth than many other analysts.

Morningstar analyst Nathan Zaia has forecast home loan growth to slow to 3 per cent to 4 per cent in 2023, because of falls in house prices and customers’ borrowing capacity.

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Zaia said net interest margins – the difference between funding costs and what the banks charge for loans – were more “material” for the major banks than credit growth.

Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake acknowledged the likely slowdown in loan growth before the bank’s annual meeting on Thursday, saying: “In our banking and financial services business we’re seeing interest rates go up, possibly volume growth come off a bit in the market , although we continue to have good volume growth.”

Anthony Waldron, chief executive of REA Group-owned Mortgage Choice, said he thought the refinancing market would remain strong because many borrowers would face higher rates as rock-bottom fixed-rate loans expire. “People have been on a rate that, in some cases started, with a 1, and all of a sudden, they are going to be in the 3s,” Waldron said.

Categories
Technology

Mash, Neco-Arc Will Be Free DLC in Melty Blood Type Lumina

Mash, Neco-Arc Will Be Free DLC in Melty Blood Type Lumina

Project Lumina has announced that Neco-Arc and Mash will join the roster of playable characters as DLC in Melty Blood: Type Lumina. They will be available for free in the summer. Project Lumina will reveal the concrete date that players can get Neco-Arc and Mash in the near future. [Thanks, Famitsu!]

These characters were first teased in June 2022. As a reminder, the first two DLC characters (Neco-Arc and Mash) will appear in Summer 2022, and two more will appear in Winter 2022. All four DLC characters will be free.

Neco-Arc is a recurring joke character from Tsukihime. Her identity of ella as an official meme will actually play into her fighting style of ella. She has a lot of moves that can cause random effects, which means players who main her will need to rely on luck and fast thinking.

Mash is the deuteragonist and heroine of Fate/Grand Order, and she is a close-range fighter with her shield. According to the article, she is a beginner-friendly character. Mash can also use her shield from her to guard herself as she rushes towards the enemy.

Aside from the new DLC characters, there will be an update to the story mode. Aside from new scenarios that will let players experience a ‘boss rush,’ Project Lumina powered up the story sequences. There will be 2D pixel art characters moving on the screen to act out what is happening in the story.

Melty Blood: Type Lumina is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows PC. It is unknown exactly when the Mash and Neco-Arc DLC, as well as the story mode update, will appear in Melty Blood: Type Lumina.

Categories
Sports

Liverpool vs. Manchester City – Football Match Report – July 30, 2022

Liverpool vs. Manchester City - Football Match Report - July 30, 2022

Summer signing Darwin Nunez scored as Liverpool beat Premier League champions Manchester City 3-1 to claim the FA Community Shield at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.

The Uruguayan player, acquired from Benfica for an initial fee of €75 million, made himself an instant fan favorite after capping a lively appearance off the bench with a stoppage time goal to secure the first trophy of the season.

Despite being without Nunez in the first half, Liverpool were quick to strike, with Trent Alexander-Arnold opening the scoring in the 21st minute. His first-time strike took a slight deflection off the head of Nathan Ake and nestled in off the post.

– Ogden: Nunez upstages Haaland, Alvarez in Liverpool’s Community Shield win
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City’s Erling Haaland started his second game since signing for Pep Guardiola’s team and spurned two chances to draw level shortly before half-time.

Jurgen Klopp introduced new man Nunez from the bench an hour in, and Liverpool continued to look dangerous going forward, with City desperate for an equaliser.

And while all eyes were on Haaland, it was another summer signing — Julian Alvarez — who drew the game level in the 70th minute.

The Argentina forward squeezed a shot past Adrian after a goalmouth scramble that saw Phil Foden win the ball from the Spanish goalkeeper. Alvarez’s goal was initially ruled out as his original run in behind was deemed offside, but a lengthy VAR check ended with Craig Pawson overturning the decision.

But the goal didn’t keep City on level terms for long. Nunez drew a handball from Ruben Dias in the penalty area that eventually was awarded through VAR as a penalty. Mohamed Salah dispatched the spot kick with ease.

Victory was ensured for Klopp’s side in added time — and Nunez got his goal. He had to home past Ederson to give Liverpool a two-goal cushion and ensure a perfect start to his tenure at Anfield.

“Our season started today, and it was important for us to get off on the right foot,” said Alexander-Arnold, who was full of praise for 23-year-old Nunez’s impact.

“He won the penalty, scored a goal and looked very lively. He’s been brought in to score goals, and he’s proved he can do that today,” he said.

“He’s a top player, a young player who is willing to learn. He’s bonded well with the lads. He came on with a point to prove.”

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

Categories
Australia

The landslide and the incredible rescue, 25 years on

Thousands of tonnes of earth and debris slid down the hillside, slamming into a four-storey ski club lodge, which then hit the Bimbadeen Staff Lodge.

Eighteen people were killed in the darkness and freezing cold.

The front page of the Sydney Morning Herald the day after the landslide.
The front page of the Sydney Morning Herald the day after the landslide. (Nine)

Several hours down the road, a 21-year-old radio journalist was fast asleep, after a boozy farewell drinks with co-workers in Canberra.

“I was fast asleep when I got a phone call suggesting I get to Thredbo as soon as possible,” Ben Fordham told nine.com.au.

“I didn’t have any information about why I needed to get there but I was told that there were heaps of emergency services vehicles making their way to Thredbo.”

Having drunk too much to drive, Fordham started a “mad ring around” for someone who could drive. Eventually he and three others packed into a car and made the early morning trip.

Ben Fordham was a 21-year-old reporter based in Canberra when the Thredbo landslide happened.
Ben Fordham was a 21-year-old reporter based in Canberra when the Thredbo landslide happened. (Ben Fordham)

A police roadblock was keeping all media out of Thredbo.

But Fordham managed to get in before all other journalists, by telling a police officer he was heading for higher ground for better mobile phone reception.

From there he sprinted into the darkness, to be picked up by a local waiting for him.

“When the sun came up the following morning I was the only journalist who was there who was able to describe what we were seeing,” Fordham said.

“It was surreal because it didn’t look real. It looked like the kind of thing you would see in a movie.

“It just looked like a giant stomped on the side of a mountain. And you could tell that there were chalets and other buildings and vehicles that had all been damaged and dislodged.”

Ben Fordham was just 21 when he was sent to cover the Thredbo landslide.
Ben Fordham was just 21 when he was sent to cover the Thredbo landslide. (Ben Fordham)

Emergency services were frantically trying to determine how they could start the search for possible survivors without setting off another landslide.

“I think the thing I struggled with the most was the concept that there were people underneath all that rubble,” Fordham said.

“It looked to me like there was no way in the world anyone could survive.”

Rescue workers checking debris after the Thredbo landslide.
Rescue workers checking debris after the Thredbo landslide. (Dean Seawell)

It was a deeply upsetting experience for a 21-year-old journalist, along with the community and family or friends of the victims.

“It was absolutely terrifying to think that people were fast asleep in the middle of the night, laying next to their loved ones.

“And then God knows what happened next. They must have heard a noise. The ground must have started moving. And the next thing you know their whole lives just slipped away.”

The media were kept at a distance as the excavation took place, but Fordham recalled what he saw through the lens of a camera.

“I remember seeing a body being moved, and it was clear to me that the body was frozen stiff,” he said.

“So there was no way in the world in my mind anyone was going to come out of that alive.”

Later that day, a more senior journalist from 2UE had arrived, and Fordham thought it was time for him to leave.

“I was probably suffering from a bit of trauma, to be honest,” he said.

“God knows what the friends and families involved were going through.”

In a phone call that night, Fordham’s father urged him to stay in Thredbo.

“I said that they’re pulling out frozen bodies. There’s no one alive under there. And I feel like I should go,” Fordham said.

The next morning Fordham woke up early and turned on the local radio station.

A thumbs up from rescuers offered to sign someone was alive in the rubble.
A thumbs up from rescuers offered to sign someone was alive in the rubble. (Dallas Kilponen)

A local politician had called in to report noises had been heard underneath the wreckage.

Fordham called Sydney and conveyed the news to the nation.

“My boss called me and said ‘You guys better be right about this’,” he said.

“There’s nothing worse than false hope.

“I remember having this awful, empty feeling about the possibility that the noise under there might have been created by something else.”

Rescuers extracting Stuart Diver from the rubble of the Thredbo landslide.
Rescuers extracting Stuart Diver from the rubble of the Thredbo landslide. (Nick Moore)

When Fordham arrived at the command post, he was told what had happened at 5.37am that morning.

Diver had been uninjured by the landslide, trapped between three concrete slabs.

Stuart Diver and was pulled from the rubble three days after the landslide.
Stuart Diver and was pulled from the rubble three days after the landslide. (Supplied: SCAT Paramedics)

His wife Sally Diver, who had been sleeping beside him, had been trapped under their bedhead in a depression. As the depression filled with water overnight, she drowned.

Stuart Diver was right beside his wife, but his desperate efforts to save her were unsuccessful.

He spent the next two-and-a-half days under the rubble in his underwear, with freezing water gushing past.

Sixty-five hours after the landslide, Diver was saved, suffering only frostbite.

“We need to remember so many people lost their lives and so many families were heartbroken that day,” Fordham said.

“But I think they would all understand the joy that we all felt when we realized that Stuart was going to get out of there.”

Fordham would go on to win a Walkley Award and a Raward that year for his coverage of the Thredbo landslide – the youngest reporter to do so.

But the impact of covering such devastation stuck with him.

“Months later, I was sitting in the pub in Sydney with some mates and then all of them went off to go and hit the dance floor,” he said.

“I was sitting there on my own and I just started crying.

July 30

Hundreds of sharks target shipwrecked sailors

“I think that’s the first time when I allowed myself to comprehend what I’d watched and what I’d experienced because at the time you’re right in the middle of it, you don’t really have that opportunity to sit back and contemplate the whole thing.

“And I was just an observer. So God only knows what it would have been like for the families and friends of those who were involved, let alone for Stuart.”

It was later determined that leaking water mains softening the ground had caused the landslide.

Categories
US

Drone strikes Russian forces in Crimea

A Russian soldier guards the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, Crimea, Sunday, July 31, 2022.

Categories
Business

RLB forecasts emerging construction cost inflation will ease in 2023

RLB forecasts emerging construction cost inflation will ease in 2023

The rate at which construction costs are soaring – contributing to a spate of high-profile building company collapses – will ease next year, according to new forecasts from global consultancy firm RLB.

Construction cost inflation in Melbourne is forecast to halve, dropping from 8 per cent this year to 4 per cent in 2023, and in Sydney it is predicted to slow from 6.9 per cent to 3.9 per cent.

An even bigger decline is forecast for the Gold Coast with cost growth dropping from 11.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent. Similarly, in Brisbane it should drop from 10.5 per cent this year to 5.1 per cent in 2023, according to forecasts published this week in RLB’s second quarter 2022 International Report.

RLB research and development director Domenic Schiafone said the expectation that costing will ease through next year was due to curtailing demand, likely to be caused by inflationary pressures.

“This easing of demand should allow manufacturing and logistics to get back to ‘normality’ or pre-Covid levels,” he said.

“The easing of demand should also see a softening of material prices with the high level of ‘demand-led price premiums’ reducing.”

Association of Professional Builders co-founder Russ Stephens, whose clients are residential home builders, agreed to escalate costs could halve next year, but off a much higher base.

He said the cost to build a residential home had increased a lot more than non-residential or commercial builds due to the larger percentage of timber used, and that temporary price hikes created by supply and demand were not reflected in the reports we were seeing.

Australia’s typical house build cost has soared more than $94,000 in 15 months, according to figures revealed in analysis by the Housing Industry Association and News Corp Australia earlier this month.

The national inflation rate hit 6.1 per cent in the year to June with new dwellings and automotive fuel the most significant contributors, new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics this week showed. New dwellings were up 20.3 per cent.

Warning to Australians wanting to build

While construction cost inflation is expected to ease sometime next year, in the meantime the pain will continue.

Mr Stephens said because costs were increasing so quickly, consumers needed to be aware prices quoted for builds would not last long.

“If they’ve had a price quoted that is older than 30 days they should expect to have that price renegotiated,” he said.

He also said consumers would see more builders including rise and fall clauses, also known as cost escalation clauses, in contracts.

“It gives the ability for a builder to pass an increase in cost of materials on to the consumer,” Mr Stephens explained, adding it was common in other countries but Australia didn’t typically use them.

“What I would say to consumers is that’s not necessarily a negative thing because if the builders don’t put those clauses in they’ll have to put more contingency in to the price to protect themselves against potential increases.

“So rise and fall clauses are probably a good thing for consumers because it means they will only pay the cost of the increase rather than an inflated prediction of what increases might be, especially as we’re seeing evidence now that the increases will start to slow down next year.”

Factors contributing to the construction industry crisis

The construction industry is facing challenges so great that high-profile building companies are dropping like flies.

Mr Schiafone said fragmented supply chain issues were not resolved and labor shortages across the nation have continued as a result of the pandemic.

The consultancy’s report noted lead times for some products from overseas were currently

16 to 20 weeks, when traditionally they were half that at eight to 10 weeks.

Additionally, the need for construction labor and materials after recent flood damage will enhance existing shortages across the country, he said.

Mr Schiafone said higher fuel prices, increasing power costs and timber shortages were all symptoms of the war in Ukraine and were likely to linger for some time yet.

RLB global chairman Andrew Reynolds said significant cost escalation, global delivery uncertainty, aberrant weather events causing significant construction delays, and labor shortages were common challenges in the industry across the world.

Failed building companies

The latest company to collapse was prominent Melbourne apartment developer Caydon earlier this week, blaming “one difficult market situation after another”.

The next day, on Wednesday, ASX-listed developer Cedar Woods shelved a major inner-city Brisbane townhouse and apartment project due to rising costs and delays.

It came less than a week after Perth developer Sirona Urban killed off a $165 million luxury tower, where more than 50 per cent of apartments had been bought off the plan, blaming skyrocketing construction costs and labor shortages.

It was the second major apartment project to fall over in Australia last week.

A Melbourne developer, Central Equity, abandoned plans to build a $500 million apartment tower on the Gold Coast, blaming the crisis in the building industry and surging construction costs for making the project unprofitable.

Earlier this year, two major Australian construction companies, Gold Coast-based Condev and industry giant Probuild, went into liquidation.

The grim list has continued to grow from there as a number of other high-profile companies also collapsed, including Inside Out Construction, Dyldam Developments, Home Innovation Builders, ABG Group, New Sensation Homes, Next, Pindan, ABD Group and Pivotal Homes.

Others joined the list too including Solido Builders, Waterford Homes, Affordable Modular Homes and Statement Builders.

Then two Victorian building companies were further casualties of the crisis, having gone into liquidation at the end of June, with one homeowner having forked out $300,000 for a now half-built house.

Hotondo Homes Horsham, which was a franchisee of a national construction firm, collapsed a fortnight ago affecting 11 homeowners with $1.2 million in outstanding debt.

It is the second Hotondo Homes franchisee to go under this year, with its Hobart branch collapsing in January owing $1.3 million to creditors, according to a report from liquidator Revive Financial.

Meanwhile, a Sydney family face never being able to build their dream home after their builder Jada Group collapsed in March owing $2.4 million and the cost of their home’s construction jumped to $1.9 million, a whopping $800,000 more than the original quote.

Snowdon Developments was ordered into liquidation by the Supreme Court with 52 staff members, 550 homes and more than 250 creditors owed just under $18 million, although it was partially bought out less than 24 hours after going bust.

Dozens of homeowners and hundreds of tradies were left reeling after a Victorian building firm called Langford Jones Homes went into liquidation on July 4 owing $14.2 million to 300 creditors.

News.com.au also raised questions about NSW builder Willoughby Homes, which is under investigation by the Government after builds stalled and debts blew out to 90 days.

There are between 10,000 to 12,000 residential building companies in Australia undertaking new homes or large renovation projects, a figure estimated by the Association of Professional Builders.

– with Sarah Sharples

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