In the commercial sector Condev and Probuild have already gone to the wall as costs escalated because of materials shortages and delays and the industry is preparing itself for more corporate failures with no real solutions at hand.

“We are genuinely concerned that will happen,” MBAQ deputy chief executive Paul Bidwell said.

“It’s a wicked problem. There must be (a fallout).

“We would not have been surprised if the number (of corporate collapses) was bigger.”

Condev today appointed Worrells as liquidator.

Condev had 18 projects across the Gold Coast and Brisbane.

Owners Tracy and Steve Marais said they were “heartbroken” after failing to find the extra funding to keep going.

“We are absolutely devastated for the Condev family of employees, our tradespeople and our affiliates,” Steve Marais said.

“Unfortunately, we were not able to reach the unanimous support we needed to keep the business operational in the future.”

Bidwell, who will step in as acting chief executive, pointed to the fact that there was still a property boom in Queensland, as well as a trades shortage and now a huge demand coming from the floods.

“There will be about 60,000 houses that will need some sort of repair work,” he said.

There have been builders who have decided to “sit it out”. Some stopped building in areas of the southeast where it was difficult to get workers but that’s not an option in the commercial sector where there are ongoing overheads.

“There is no single solution,” he said.

“We need clients or developers to have some patience with the builder.”

Negotiating on cost blowouts was one way out of the problem but in many cases that wasn’t going to work.

He said one house last year had a $300,000 blowout in costs but generally he has heard a common figure of $30,000.

“Something has got to give,” he said.

Bidwell said the departure of Galvin as chief executive of the association was just an issue of him having served almost nine years in the job and it was time to move on.

Master Builders President Ralf Dutton said Galvin was responsible for some key changes that shifted the direction of the association and have seen it go from strength to strength over that time.

“It’s not just about a strong balance sheet, which Grant has definitely delivered with his focus on ensuring profits were returned to the business to reinvest in relevant products and services for members,” Ralf said.

“Recently, Grant has navigated us through the complex waters of the COVID-19 pandemic and the incredible pressures that this has meant for the industry – with the perfect storm of trade and material shortages and cost hikes currently impacting the industry.”