The Burrow
Sep 19, 2024
When it comes to creating our dream homes, it’s safe to say we’re all looking to find the best quote possible to save that extra bit of money on any renovation project. But the unfortunate truth is that, even if you do pay a tradesperson a substantial amount of money to complete a job, there’s no guarantee that the work they do will be to a high standard.
And, unfortunately, this sort of ‘untrusted’ trade practice is becoming more and more common across Australia and the rest of the world, with low-trusted builders cropping up with alarming frequency in cities and areas where qualified tradespeople are lacking, and essential renovation and repair work is increasing in demand.
But just where in Australia and the world are these least-trusted builder hotspots, and what can you do to ensure that you don’t accidentally hire an unqualified tradesperson to do your home renovation work for you? As experts in home and contents insurance, we sought to find answers.
To do so, we ranked 10 core Australian cities and 25 countries around the world based on search volume data for key search terms and on the number of registered tradespeople in certain trade industries with a less than 3 star rating on Trustpilot, in order to reveal which locations were most likely to be home to higher numbers of low-trusted builders.
Read on to see what our stats revealed.
Starting off close to home, let’s first touch on which cities in Australia have the highest likelihood of being home to low-trusted builders, and in which industries they’re most common.
First off, we have Central Cost. Nestled basically halfway between Sydney and Newcastle, this area scored well above the majority of other Australian cities on our list with a total of 6.6 out of 7.
Sadly, the Central Coast came top of the list of unreliable search terms per 100,00 people in almost all areas we looked at, with the exception of landscaping and electricians (though even here it still placed second overall).
Indeed, some of the unenviable highlights included 107.6 yearly searches per capita around poor-quality plumbers, which was roughly 15 more searches than our second-place city, as well as 92.2 searches per capita around unreliable locksmiths. Even repairmen weren’t spared, with total search volume capping out at an average of 58.4 per 100,000 over the course of the year.
Following on from the Central Coast, we have its northern cousin, the Sunshine Coast, in second place. Like Central Coast, the Sunshine Coast is also home to a higher population of low-trusted builders, though residents can take some comfort in the fact that such an issue is not as prevalent here at the moment.
Scoring 6 out of 7 in total, and similarly to Central Coast, the Sunshine Coast came second across the board in almost all categories, with the exclusion of electricians, handymen, locksmiths, and gardeners. Indeed, Sunshine Coast actually placed fourth and third for handymen and locksmiths at 28.2 and 59.8 per capita searches respectively.
Still, Sunshine Coast is seemingly home to the highest number of unreliable electricians and gardeners out of the Australian cities we examined, with 59.8 per capita searches around each topic in the last year.
Dropping back down to the Central Coast area, we next come to Newcastle, which is the third least-trusted builder location – though, thankfully, its factor totals are a world away from the Central Coast.
Firstly, Newcastle only scored 4.9 out of 7, putting it in a healthy middle ground for city scores on our list, though it still held a very high ranking in search volume for handymen, ranking first with 34.4 searches per 100,000 people in this area, and 63.1 per capita searches for locksmith, placing it in second for this factor.
However, in other trade areas, like electricians and carpenters, Newcastle actually does reasonably well, placing fifth in electricians at 31.6 per capita searches and fourth for carpenters with a per capita search volume of 34.4.
Hopping over to Australia’s capital, Canberra might have hoped it could avoid being featured on our ranking thanks to its more out-of-the-way location. However, Canberra is a far too important location for us to ignore.
Starting with the bad, Canberra managed to place third for low-trusted carpenter search terms at an average of 36.7, as well as fourth for unreliable electricians thanks to its per capita search volume of 36.7 per 100,000
But there is also good news as well. Canberra only scored a total of 4.1 out of 7 overall, which is by no means a bad thing. And by being consistently fourth or lower for all other trade areas we examined, it prevented itself from being ranked any higher on our list.
Finally, rounding out our Australian cities list, we have the Gold Coast, which scored a decent 3.9 out of 7 for least-trusted builders, and it has the stats to match such a position.
Outside of searches for unreliable electricians and handymen (where it placed third for the former at 38.7 and second for the latter at 34.3), the Gold Coast came in fourth or lower in every single trade area, all with consistently reasonable scores.
Even though it would appear that Australia is a rather prominent location for low-trusted builders, as you’ve probably already guessed, this issue is not solely restricted to one country – and there are many countries out there that actually have a much bigger problem than may first appear.
For example, based on a combination of Trustpilot reviews and the volume around unreliable search terms, it would appear that New Zealand is the country suffering the most, with a very low percentage of carpenters and locksmiths having 3 stars or above, as well as only 33% of electricians (though handyman and repairmen are doing very well, with 100% being above 3-stars)
The news isn’t much better for Denmark either, where every single trade factor we examined scored poorly, with gardeners sitting at just 12%, plumbers at 10%, and locksmiths at a dismal 6% to highlight a few.
Finally, Spain too seems to be home to low-trusted builders, particularly in the gardening and electrician industries where only 29% and 48% of those registered on Trustpilot had ratings above 3 stars.
In comparison, out of the 25 countries we examined, Australia actually ranked slap-bang in the middle of the table at 15th, with average star ratings for all trade areas we looked at.
So, now that we’ve shared some insights into where in Australia and the wider world the least-trusted builders tend to be present, what exactly can you do to minimize the chances of accidentally hiring one of these tradespeople to begin with?
Well, while not a 100% way to prevent hiring low-trusted builders, the following tips will go a long way to helping you avoid the very worst offenders:
Finally, Adrian Taylor, Executive General Manager of General Insurance at Compare the Market, raised these very valid points on the matter:
“At the end of the day, no matter how hard we try, there’s always the chance the tradesperson we hire might do a poor job, whether because they lack sufficient training or are looking to take advantage of a high-demand market.
“That’s why, even if the skills and qualifications of a tradesperson look good on paper, if there are any warning signs that they might not be who they say they are, then you should avoid using them if at all possible.
“Not only can dodgy renovations be a health and safety risk within your home, but faulty workmanship will not be covered by your home and contents insurance policy, and any poor workmanship could result in claims being denied or the payout being reduced.
“On the other hand, if you complete renovations without any mishaps, be sure to update your existing home and contents insurance policy to reflect the new value of your home, to make sure you are not underinsured and so that any future claim payments are not reduced.
“In any case, it’s important to check the Product Disclosure Statement (PDS) to be aware of any limits, restrictions and inclusions of your policy, so that you are aware of any sections that may apply to work of a low standard. Always check the Target Market Determination (TMD) to make sure the policy is suitable.”
So, there you have it, the least-trusted builder hotspots of both Australia and the world, alongside some key steps to follow to help ensure you hire a qualified tradesperson for any work you need to do in the future.
This dataset contains 2 rankings – one ranks 25 countries and the other ranks 10 Australian cities, based on how likely you are to come across low-trusted builders.
To do this, 14 different factors were used for the country ranking, and 7 were used for the city ranking. Once the data for the factors was collected, the factors were then normalized, to provide each factor with a score between 0 and 1. If data was not available, a score of 0 was given.
The normalized values were then summed, to give each country a total score out of 14 and each city a total score out of 7. The locations were then ranked from highest to lowest, based on their total scores.
The factors used are as follows:
The factors were then indexed as follows:
All data is correct as of 30/08/24. The ranking data shown is a compilation of multiple data sources and may not be representative of real life. All data is accurate with regard to the sources provided.