Data centre boom to pull thousands of tradies from home building
Oxford Economics forecasts data centre spending will exceed $240 billion by 2030, pulling 38,400 construction workers from home building.
ANZ boss Nuno Matos and Westpac chief Anthony Miller told parliament on Thursday that spending cuts would help ease inflation and housing costs. Miller warned the economy must become more productive to lift living standards.
The bigger picture is the AI boom. Data centre construction will explode from $1 billion in 2020 to $20 billion this year and $60 billion by the end of the decade.
That means fierce competition for the same tradies already stretched across hospital, defence and energy projects. The shortage will push wages and construction costs higher.
This will spread from Sydney and Melbourne to other regions by 2030.
- $240 billion by 2030
- Data centre spending forecast
- 38,400
- Workers pulled from home building
- 4.3 per cent
- Current inflation rate
- 5 times
- Interest rate increases this year
Why it mattersAustralia's housing crisis worsens when construction tradies get pulled to higher-paid data centre work, pushing up building times and costs for homes.
AustraliaHousing construction will slow and become more expensive as tens of thousands of Australian tradies move to data centre projects, which will cluster in Sydney and Melbourne before spreading nationwide.
Corroborated byThe Sydney Morning Herald
