Tradesmen

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All hands on deck called for as the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) opened an online register yesterday to help local tradespeople and builders play a significant role in rebuilding their regional communities. 
Qualified and reputable builders and tradespeople who have the capacity to work on property repairs and rebuilds are encouraged to register their details at <a href="http://www.disasters.org.au" target="_blank">www.disasters.org.au</a>. 
The register will collect key information including the town or region in which the builder or tradesperson operates, available skills and qualifications, and their key contact details. 
The above information collected will then be publicly available for use by insurance companies to source additional tradespeople for property rebuilding and repairs. This information might also be used by residents, businesses and government agencies that are seeking reputable tradespeople for privately funded construction. 
"Insurers are committed to using local trades and builders where feasible." ICA Head of Risk and Operations, Karl Sullivan says, "This register helps qualified and reputable building industry professionals nominate for work in their local area.
"Employing and contracting local professionals and suppliers during the rebuilding phase of bushfire recovery is an essential component in ensuring the economic viability of communities, including the preservation of jobs and supporting local businesses and service providers. Building professionals will still need to provide competitive quotes when contracting for work.
"Experience from recent natural disaster shows insurers predominantly use local trades for most rebuilding and repair works. For example, insurers employed more than 2000 local trades and builders and supported dozens of suppliers and service providers following last year's catastrophic floods in Townsville."
Main Photo © <a href="https://www.propertyobserver.com.au/https://www.geograph.ie/profile/2282" target="_blank" title="View profile">Kenneth Allen</a> (<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" target="_blank">cc-by-sa/2.0</a>) 
 
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j.ballantyne1990-6AQqhLzZaK

Local trades register to aid bushfire recovery launches, the Insurance Council of Australia

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The tradie booking website Hipages has been canvassing brokers and law firms in preparation for an initial public offering on the ASX.
HiPages vets the trades licenses and Australian Business Numbers of all tradespeople registered on its site.
HiPages ranks as the largest of three online trades and services sites operating in Australia.
Hipages, which counts News Corporation as a investor with 30 per cent, was last valued at $216 million following a reshuffle of its share register late last year. 
News bought into the website in 2016 for around $38 million.
The Australian Financial Review Street Talk column wrote co-founders David Vitek and Roby Sharon-Zipser had been in recent meetings to explore potential IPO options next year or a late 2018 listing.
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<div id="article-inline-ad">Hipages has worked with investment bank UBS, which has assisted with prior funding rounds.</div>
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<div>Its investors include Ellerston Capital and the venture capital firm Right Click Capital. </div>
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Founded in 2004, Hipages charges member fees for tradespeople rather than relying on commissions from jobs delivered.
Recently <a href="https://www.bunnings.com.au/">Bunnings Warehouse</a>, the Australia-based household hardware giant, started offering customers a fixed-price installation service through a strategic partnership with <a href="https://www.homeimprovementpages.com.au/">HiPages</a>.
The deal will give Bunnings customers the option of adding a $275 fixed-price installation service — which includes all fittings and fixtures, removal and disposal of old toilets, and a five-year warranty — from HiPages when they purchase a toilet suite.
Customers will receive a unique voucher code at the time of purchase, which is used to book a local tradesperson on the HiPages website.
The installation service will be rolled out nationwide, following a trial in 15 Bunnings stores in New South Wales.
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Hipages tradie booking website seeks out IPO interest

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Building, construction and carpentry prices across NSW dipped last quarter with the website serviceseeking.com.au suggesting it signalled an early indication the housing market may have peaked.
The cost to hire a carpenter decreased by 8.7 per cent compared to the previous quarter, with building and construction prices also down 5.6 per cent.
“We believe the result suggests an impending downturn in the property market. Fewer property owners and investors are undertaking renovations so consumer confidence might not be as strong as it was last year,” says ServiceSeeking.com.au CEO Jeremy Levitt.
“Investors only renovate for a positive return on investment and if that potential is not there they won’t renovate. Our data shows a relative oversupply of tradespeople to current levels of demand resulting in downward pressure on tradie prices.”
Overall, trade services in NSW across eight major categories have fallen 2.5 per cent quarterly to $59.28. When compared to the Consumer Price Index increase of 0.7 per cent quarterly released today, tradies are feeling the pinch even more.
Of the eight categories in the ServiceSeeking.com.au Tradie Price Index, only one recorded an increase: electricians managed to up their prices by 6.6 per cent in the last quarter despite all other sectors recording downturns.
Year-on-year, a 2.1 per cent decrease was recorded across the eight tradie categories.
The prices were derived by comparing a sample of 52,000 quotes submitted during the FY17 Q1 through ServiceSeeking.com.au, the website for getting any job done from tradies to professional services.
To view price changes across eight popular renovation services around the country, including major capital cities, see <a href="https://www.serviceseeking.com.au/renovations" target="_blank">www.serviceseeking.com.au/renovations</a>
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