Last month’s State of the Industry report showed promising news – not one of the businesses we spoke with had missed their budget badly. During the month of March, this trend has continued.

In addition, only 13% “˜missed budget’, putting the industry in a strong position to tackle the months ahead, including April’s Easter public holidays.

While 47% of business reported “˜making budget’ rather than exceeding, the percentage of those that “˜exceeded budget’ was still impressive, and not far behind, at 40%. Feedback reflected that the industry is witnessing consistent growth amongst home renovators.

One business owner reported that there had been many building approvals in his area during January of this year, which consequently had a flow-on effect and saw his business boom in March.

Larger projects, including industrial and government funded work, appeared to be quieter across the nation.

This could be a result of the recent election in New South Wales and other State Governments being cautious with project funding late last year.

Many businesses also said that they found their budgets were consistent with this time last year, and that little had changed in the space of 12 months in relation to industry trends.

Essentially, many reported “very few surprises.”