Construction looking up in gold capital

After a tough year, 2014 has brought signs of recovery for Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s construction industry.

Newly appointed Master Builders Association regional liaison officer for the Goldfields Colleen Horton said building permits for January and February were double those of last year, at 50 per month.

“It’s certainly a good sign things are starting to pick back up in Kalgoorlie,” she said.

While things are picking up, Ms Horton said the biggest concern for builders in Kalgoorlie-Boulder was the slowdown in construction caused by job losses in the region.

“The biggest issue is a lot of people are out of work or can’t get work so they’re not able to build new houses, they don’t have the money for it — that’s certainly slowing things down in the building industry,” she said.

“There’s more people doing more renovations rather than building because they just can’t afford it.”