Pub­li­ca­tions

Jun 4, 2025

Cur­rent state of the con­struc­tion and infra­struc­ture market

The build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try is sig­nif­i­cant and com­plex, with a land­scape which is con­stant­ly changing.It is cur­rent­ly char­ac­terised by: sig­nif­i­cant pub­lic invest­ment in nation­al infra­struc­ture with a $213 bil­lion pipeline over 5 years to finan­cial years 2027 – 28plan­ning approval delays par­tic­u­lar­ly in NSWhigh costs of constructioncon­tin­u­ing and increas­ing con­struc­tion relat­ed insolvenciesa chron­ic short­age of housinga…

May 29, 2025

Q&A with Swaab's new building and construction partner, Mark Glynn

Why did you choose Swaab?When I first met with Mary Digiglio, Swaab’s man­ag­ing part­ner and Helen Kow­al, part­ner con­struc­tion and stra­ta and there­after the broad­er Swaab lead­er­ship group, I felt an imme­di­ate align­ment with their val­ues and com­mit­ment to client service.Our moral com­pass­es were aligned, and this was the most impor­tant fac­tor in my…

May 27, 2025

Might a Receiv­er of a dis­tressed devel­op­ment project owe a duty of care to sub­se­quent own­ers of the lots when completed?

Upon tak­ing pos­ses­sion and con­trol of an incom­plete dis­tressed devel­op­ment asset, a secured financier will more often than not look to com­plete the project works itself in order to max­imise its recovery.This may neces­si­tate the financier assum­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty for the build­ing con­tract in order to com­plete the project works or engag­ing a replace­ment…

May 19, 2025

Devel­op­ers beware the statu­to­ry ​‘non del­e­gable’ duty of care under the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020

The Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (DBP Act) came into effect in NSW in June 2020. Since its intro­duc­tion the courts have pro­vid­ed guid­ance on the inter­pre­ta­tion and reach of this Act. This arti­cle looks at the recent High Court deci­sion of Paf­burn Pty Ltd v The Own­ers – Stra­ta Plan No…

May 7, 2025

Which edi­tion of Build­ing Code of Aus­tralia applies to devel­op­ments in NSW?

The Build­ing Code of Aus­tralia (BCA) is part of the the Nation­al Con­struc­tion Code (NCC). The NCC is updat­ed every 3 years, based on required reg­u­la­to­ry prac­tices, indus­try research, pub­lic feed­back and pol­i­cy direc­tions from gov­ern­ments between pub­lish­ing cycles.Con­struc­tion projects often span 2 ver­sions of the BCA.There has his­tor­i­cal­ly been much debate in the New…

Apr 30, 2025

Amend­ments to NCC 2022 com­menc­ing on 1 May 2025

Back­groundThe Aus­tralian Build­ing Codes Board (ABCB), a joint ini­tia­tive of the Com­mon­wealth and state and ter­ri­to­ry gov­ern­ments togeth­er with the build­ing and plumb­ing indus­tries, is respon­si­ble for the Nation­al Con­struc­tion Code, Water­Mark and Code­Mark Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Schemes, and reg­u­la­to­ry reform in the con­struc­tion industry. One of the ABCB’s pri­ma­ry roles is to update and main­tain…

Mar 28, 2025

Con­struc­tion con­tracts are more than just a doc­u­ment — remove con­trac­tu­al claus­es at your peril

Your con­struc­tion con­tract will map out the path­way to your build­ing project com­plet­ing on time and with­in bud­get and detail­ing how any loss­es and risks are handled. It is an essen­tial tool in man­ag­ing and shift­ing risk dur­ing the con­struc­tion phase and impor­tant­ly, lays out the rules if a dis­pute aris­es. The chances…