Materials inflation just hit a three-year high. Here is what that means for your quote.

If you are holding two or three builder quotes right now, this week's news is worth a minute of your time. Master Builders Australia says building materials inflation is now at a three-year high, driven by ongoing competition for limited labour and materials. It lands on top of a rise already in the record: ABS figures show house construction prices rose 40.8% in under four years, September 2020 to June 2024.

That is the headline. This is not a blog about whether builders are charging too much. Builders buy the same timber, steel and labour everyone else does, and those prices moved. This is about what a rise like that does to the quote sitting on your kitchen table, and why it makes reading the whole document matter more than it used to.

When prices move fast, quotes drift apart

In a flat market, two quotes for a similar home tend to land in a similar place. When input costs jump, every builder has to decide how to handle that movement, and no two of them decide the same way.

One builder locks in a fixed price and builds a buffer into it. Another keeps the headline number lean and pushes the risk into provisional sums, prime cost items and allowances. A third adds a rise-and-fall contract term so price movement lands on you after signing. All three are legitimate ways to write a quote. They just describe very different deals, and the bottom line on page one will not tell you which one you are looking at.

The lines that carry the cost rise

When materials are still climbing, the lines most exposed to that are the ones priced as estimates rather than fixed amounts. Provisional sums for site works, earthworks and retaining. Prime cost allowances for tiles, tapware, appliances and benchtops. Anything marked TBC or "standard range" without a brand and model beside it.

These lines are also where quotes are hardest to compare, because every builder formats them differently. One names the appliance models. One quotes a dollar allowance. One writes "builder's range" and leaves it there. Same house on paper, three different documents.

Questions worth asking about any quote

We show, we never tell, so we will not tell you which quote to choose. But here are questions any buyer can put to their own paperwork this week. Which lines are fixed and which are estimates? How much of the total sits in provisional sums and allowances, added together? Is there a rise-and-fall contract term, and if so, what does it apply to? For every allowance, what does the builder say happens if the real cost comes in higher? Which appliance brands and models are actually named?

If the answers differ between your quotes, that difference is part of the real gap between them, whatever the front page says. What those terms mean legally is a question for your conveyancer or building solicitor, and worth asking before you sign.

How a BuildScore™ report fits in

A BuildScore™ report puts up to three builder quotes side by side and shows what each one actually includes, line by line: benchtop material, ceiling heights, appliance brands and models, heating and hot water, flooring by room, and which lines are still only estimates. The inclusions research is done for you, with links to the actual products, scored across 5 categories against criteria built on thirteen years of industry experience, and an experienced, real person finalises every score.

Whatever costs do next, the thing you can control is knowing exactly what is written in each quote before you commit to one of them.

BuildScore™ is an independent information and comparison service. Reports are based on general industry data and analysis. Not financial, legal or building advice. Always engage qualified professionals before signing any contract.

Sources: Master Builders Australia, 2 September 2026; ABS house construction prices, September 2020 to June 2024.