The Friday Intelligence Briefing
Plain · Sourced · Every FridayThe Build BriefIssue 009
A regulator just described the problem we write about every week.
ASIC found most home insurance claims it reviewed included a cash settlement, and on cyclone claims the offer was often built from a single quote the insurer had chosen. Victoria was the only large state where dwelling approvals rose in July. And the forecasts do not have it hitting its housing target in any year they cover.
By BuilderHQ, Melbourne
Architects have started running their tenders with us.
We asked a few of our users what it is like to tender on BuilderHQ.
Architects have been running tenders on BuilderHQ for a few months now. Long enough to have a view, so we asked for it.
Here is what they told us. The job that used to land on the architect after the drawings are done, ringing builders and reading three different price formats, now takes a fraction of the time.
The tender is set up before it goes out, so the prices that come back line up. That is the point of it. Not more quotes. Quotes you can compare.
Hear what they said, or see the Brunswick tender below for what one looks like from the inside.
Not more quotes. Comparable ones.
See how it works for design practicesThis week from the BuilderHQ team
A regulator just described the problem we write about every week.
ASIC published a review of home insurance claims on Sunday. At least 63% of the claims it looked at included a cash settlement rather than the insurer managing the repair. On claims from Cyclone Jasper, insurers relied on a single quote in 52% of them, and 73% of those quotes came from the insurer’s own preferred supplier.
One builder told ASIC they had undercut their own costs by 40% for the insurer.
This is repair work, not a new build, and the parties are different. But the mechanism is the one we write about every Friday. When one quote decides what work is worth, and the party paying picks who writes it, the number is not a market price. It is one opinion.
Elsewhere: Victoria was the only large state where dwelling approvals rose in July, though its own houses went the other way. And the forecasts say the state does not reach its housing target in any year they cover.
The Feature is a Brunswick extension that went out to tender this week. One planning set on Tuesday, three builders pricing it by Wednesday.
The BuilderHQ Team
Three signals. For everyone in the build.
01 · The Quote
ASIC has documented what happens when one quote sets the price.
63%
of reviewed home insurance claims included a cash settlement
ASIC review, published 31 August 2026
The second and third figures are Cyclone Jasper claims. Each narrows the one before it.
| Series | Share |
|---|---|
| of claims reviewed included a cash settlement | 63% |
| of cyclone claims relied on a single quote | 52% |
| of those quotes came from the insurer’s preferred supplier | 73% |
ASIC published a review of home insurance cash settlements on 31 August. At least 63% of the final claims it reviewed included a cash settlement rather than the insurer managing the repair itself.
The detail underneath is what matters. On claims arising from Cyclone Jasper, insurers relied on a single quote in 52% of cases, and 73% of those single quotes came from a supplier the insurer had chosen. In one case a builder told ASIC they had undercut their own costs by 40% for the insurer. That is one builder’s account, not a measure of the market.
This is insurance repair work, not new residential construction, and the parties and the incentives differ. But the mechanism will be familiar to anyone who has run a tender. A single price, prepared by a party chosen by whoever is paying, becomes the number that decides what the work is worth. There is nothing to set it against, so there is no way to see what it includes, what it leaves out, or what it has assumed.
It is unusual to see a regulator describe the problem this plainly. Our Perspective on procurement makes the same argument about how homes are tendered.
The practical response is the same in both settings. Get more than one price. Make sure they are pricing the same scope. And read what each one excludes before you compare the totals.
What this means for you
If you are offered a cash settlement, you can get your own quote. Compare what each one includes before you accept a number.
Scope definition matters as much on a repair as on a new build. Without it, quotes cannot be compared.
Work priced from an insurer selected quote can sit well below cost. Know what the scope covers before you take it on.
A cash settlement that does not cover the repair leaves a funding gap on the asset.
Source: ASIC, Beyond the payout: ASIC warns home insurers to reduce cash settlement risks, 31 August 2026.
One quote is not a price. It is an opinion.
02 · The Pipeline
Victoria was the only large state where approvals rose.
+9.7%
Victorian dwelling approvals, July 2026
national approvals fell 3.6%
no change
Seasonally adjusted. Victorian private house approvals fell 4.1% in the same month, so the state’s rise came from apartments and townhouses.
| Series | Change over July 2026 |
|---|---|
| Victoria | +9.7% |
| National | -3.6% |
| New South Wales | -8.1% |
| Queensland | -13.9% |
Total dwelling approvals fell 3.6% nationally in July to 17,687, with private sector houses down 4.2% to 10,199. Queensland fell 13.9% and New South Wales fell 8.1%.
Victoria went the other way, rising 9.7% to 4,642. The composition matters. Victorian private house approvals fell 4.1% to 2,939, so the increase came from apartments and townhouses rather than detached homes.
The value of residential building approved fell 4.9% nationally to $11.26 billion. Fewer dwellings, and fewer approved dollars.
On the trend measure, which is smoothed rather than seasonally adjusted and so is not directly comparable with the figures above, the ACT rose 7.4%.
For anyone working in Victoria the useful read is where the work is. Detached approvals are softening while medium density picks up. A practice or a builder set up for townhouses is looking at a different market from one set up for detached houses.
What this means for you
Detached approvals are softening, which usually means more builder capacity for that work.
Medium density is where the Victorian growth is. Practices set up for townhouses are entering a better market.
The Victorian pipeline is holding against a falling national number, but the mix is shifting away from detached.
More multi-unit approvals means more construction lending enquiry, with a different risk profile from detached.
Source: ABS, Building Approvals, Australia, July 2026, released 1 September 2026.
The state went up. The houses went down.
03 · The Forecast
Victoria is not expected to hit its housing target in any forecast year.
56,630
homes started in Victoria in 2025
the state target is 80,000 a year
The distance between the bars is the shortfall. The axis starts at zero so it is not exaggerated.
| Series | Homes |
|---|---|
| Started in Victoria, 2025 | 56,630 |
| Forecast ceiling before 2028 | under 60,000 |
| State target, every year | 80,000 |
Victoria started 56,630 homes in 2025. The state target is 80,000 a year.
The Housing Industry Association’s latest outlook, released on 31 August, does not have Victoria going past 60,000 starts in any year before 2028. It does not have the state reaching 80,000 in any year it forecasts.
Read that beside the signal above. Victoria had the best approvals result of any large state in July. Both things are true at once. A good month is not a recovery, and an approval is not a start.
That gap is the part worth understanding. An approval is permission. A start is money, trades and time committed. What sits between the two is feasibility, finance and capacity, and that is where a project either goes ahead or does not.
If you are planning work over the next two or three years, the plain reading is that good trades will not get easier to book. The problem is not demand. It is the capacity to build.
What this means for you
Trade availability is not about to improve. Book early and get the dates in writing.
Demand for design work should hold. The squeeze is further down the chain, at delivery.
Capacity is the limit, not enquiry. Picking the right projects matters more than winning more of them.
A shortfall running for years keeps pressure under prices and under construction lending demand.
Source: Housing Industry Association, Housing Outlook, 31 August 2026. Victorian starts and forecast figures as supplied by HIA.
A good month is not a recovery.
The drawings covered 34 items. Our software found the other 105.
One town planning set on Tuesday. A full scope of works, the gaps found, the allowances set, and three builders pricing it. Inside a day.
A rear extension to a single storey brick house in Brunswick went out to tender this week. Three bedrooms, one bathroom, a new garage off the back lane. The kind of job that makes up most of the work in Melbourne’s inner north.
It came to us with one document: an eleven page town planning set. That is what most projects have at this stage.
What the software did with it
It read the drawings and pulled out 34 scope items. Then, knowing the type of work involved, it worked out everything else a job like this needs and added another 105.
That is the part that usually takes a week. A planning set is drawn to get a permit, so nobody expects it to carry a full scope. The software fills in the rest.
The owner then answered all 105 in an hour and eighteen minutes. Each answer is visible to every builder, so they are all pricing the same thing.
What happened when it opened
The architect opened it to three builders. Two spots went inside the hour, the third shortly after.
For a builder, getting in this early is the whole point. You see the job before it is shopped around, you have time to price it properly rather than overnight, and you are talking to the owner while they are still making decisions. That is worth more than another lead.
A planning set is drawn to get a permit. The rest of the scope has to come from somewhere.
What this means for you
You do not need a full set of drawings to get real prices. Put a project up and the questions get answered before anyone quotes.
This is the work you used to do after the drawings were finished. See how it works for architects.
Three spots, one list, everyone pricing the same job. See what a tender looks like.
A tender that settles its gaps before pricing gives you a contract sum with less room to move later.
Source: BuilderHQ platform data, September 2026. The project is described in general terms and no party is named.
Meet Nimbus Workshop, and an award winning house at Mont Albert.
New homes & Interiors · Melbourne, VIC · In the network since 2026
Architecture and interiors studio · Melbourne, VIC
5.0
Google rating
12
Projects in the portfolio
$2m+
Typical build value
Why we introduce them
Most homes are drawn by one practice and fitted out by another. Nimbus Workshop does both, and the landscape with them, so what is planned and what is finally installed answer to the same people.
The practice
A Melbourne architecture and interior design studio working on single homes, dual occupancy sites and townhouses, along with Specialist Disability Accommodation and a smaller amount of commercial fitout. Most of its work runs through the eastern suburbs.
A studio that holds the architecture, the interiors and the landscape in one place is exactly the kind we want in front of people planning a build.
The project
Trafalgar, Mont Albert
Trafalgar is a single house on a leafy street in Mont Albert, finished in 2024. The plan turns inward rather than outward: the home is arranged around its own courtyard, which is connected to a tearoom and does the work a back garden usually does, bringing light and air deep into the middle of the house.
The centrepiece is a sculptural spiral staircase rising through a double height void. Around it the materials are left to do the talking, natural and tactile, lit softly rather than brightly. The landscaping carries the same idea out to the street, so the house settles into a row of established trees instead of announcing itself.
In 2026 it took an award for single and multi-family house design at the International Architecture and Design Awards.
See the project on Nimbus Workshop- Location
- Mont Albert, VIC
- Type
- Single dwelling
- Completed
- 2024
- Recognition
- International Architecture and Design Awards, 2026
Questions this edition answers
- What did ASIC find about home insurance cash settlements?
- In a review published on 31 August 2026, ASIC found that at least 63% of the final home insurance claims it reviewed included a cash settlement rather than the insurer managing the repair. On claims arising from Cyclone Jasper, insurers relied on a single quote in 52% of cases, and 73% of those single quotes came from a supplier the insurer had chosen.
- Can I get my own quote if my insurer offers a cash settlement?
- Yes. A cash settlement is an offer, and you can obtain your own quote to compare against it. The important step is checking that both quotes cover the same scope of work, because a lower figure often reflects a narrower scope rather than a better price. Read what each one excludes before comparing the totals.
- Why is one quote a problem when pricing building work?
- A single price has nothing to be read against. There is no way to see what it includes, what it leaves out, or what it has assumed, so the number cannot be tested. When the party paying also chooses who writes the quote, the figure that results reflects one view of the work rather than a market price.
- How many homes did Victoria start in 2025?
- 56,630, against a state target of 80,000 a year. The Housing Industry Association's outlook, published on 31 August 2026, does not forecast Victoria exceeding 60,000 starts in any year before 2028. It does not have the state reaching 80,000 in any year it covers.
- What is the difference between a building approval and a housing start?
- An approval is permission to build. A start is money, trades and time committed to the job. A project can be approved and never begin, which is why a strong approvals month does not necessarily mean more homes are being built. Feasibility, finance and capacity all sit between the two.
- Did building approvals rise or fall in July 2026?
- Total dwelling approvals fell 3.6% nationally to 17,687 in seasonally adjusted terms, with private sector houses down 4.2% to 10,199. Queensland fell 13.9% and New South Wales fell 8.1%. The value of residential building approved fell 4.9% to $11.26 billion.
- Why did Victorian dwelling approvals rise in July 2026?
- Victoria rose 9.7% to 4,642 dwellings, the only large state to increase. The rise came from apartments and townhouses rather than detached homes: Victorian private house approvals fell 4.1% to 2,939 over the same month.
- Is a town planning drawing set enough to price a build?
- Not on its own. On the Brunswick extension covered in this edition, an eleven page town planning set settled 34 lines of the schedule a house of that type requires, 108 did not apply, and 105 were left open. Planning drawings are prepared to obtain a permit rather than to price construction, so the remaining questions have to be answered before builders can price the same scope.
Where this edition's numbers come from
Cash settlements
The forecast
Building approvals
Partner Corner
This edition used data and reporting from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the Housing Industry Association and Nimbus Workshop. The Build Brief is compiled by BuilderHQ, Melbourne.
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ASIC found most home insurance claims it reviewed included a cash settlement, often priced off a single quote the insurer chose. This week’s Build Brief.
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The Build Brief is compiled by BuilderHQ, Melbourne. Read past editions at builderhq.com.au/build-brief.