Every renovation runs on licensed trades — but which trades, and how many of them are actually out there? To find out, we compiled and analysed more than 283,000 current trade-licence records from Australia's state building and contractor registers, mapping each licensee to the kind of work they're licensed to do.
The result is one of the most detailed public snapshots of Australia's renovation workforce. Below are the headline findings, the full trade-by-trade breakdown, regional hotspots, and an honest note on what the data can and can't tell you. The figures are a point-in-time snapshot and are best read as a guide to the shape of the industry rather than an exact census.
Here's every trade in the dataset, ranked by how many current licence records we found. The bars show each trade's share of the total.
| Builders | 105,014 (37.0%) | |
| Electricians | 46,127 (16.3%) | |
| Carpenters | 45,638 (16.1%) | |
| Plumbers | 34,653 (12.2%) | |
| Painters | 15,249 (5.4%) | |
| Tilers | 11,992 (4.2%) | |
| Kitchen & bathroom | 8,080 (2.8%) | |
| Plasterers | 7,066 (2.5%) | |
| Landscapers | 6,948 (2.5%) | |
| Flooring specialists | 2,796 (1.0%) |
The shape is striking: builders, electricians and carpenters together make up around 70% of all licensed trades in the data. The finishing trades that define how a renovation actually looks and feels — painters, tilers, plasterers and flooring specialists — are each a much smaller slice, which helps explain why good finishers are so often booked out well in advance.
With over 105,000 licence records, builders are by far the biggest group. That partly reflects how broad the ‘builder’ category is: it spans everyone from large-scale construction firms to specialist low-rise and renovation builders, and in some states a builder's licence is required for structural work that other trades can't legally carry out.
For homeowners, the practical takeaway is that there's genuine choice in the builder market — which makes getting several written quotes and checking each licence not just advisable but easy to do. Our step-by-step guide to hiring a builder walks through how to compare them properly.
Electrical and plumbing work is the part of any renovation that legally must be done by a licensed professional in every state and territory — there's no DIY shortcut. In the registers that license electricians directly, electricians are the most numerous trade after builders, at more than 46,000 records. Plumbers number over 34,000.
That density is reassuring, but it doesn't mean availability is guaranteed: these are exactly the trades that get booked out during busy renovation seasons, and the ones where cutting corners with an unlicensed operator can void your insurance and create real safety risks.
Licensed trades aren't spread evenly. Grouping the records by location surfaces clear concentrations in the fast-growing suburbs and regional cities where the most building is happening.
Queensland's busiest areas for licensed trades are led by Toowoomba, the Sunshine Coast around Caloundra, and the Gold Coast corridor through Beenleigh, Nerang and Burleigh Heads, followed by Cairns, Hervey Bay and Mackay — a snapshot of where the state's renovation and construction activity is concentrated.
In New South Wales, Greater Western Sydney dominates, with suburbs like Merrylands, Castle Hill, Auburn and Baulkham Hills among the highest counts, alongside regional centres such as Port Macquarie and Dubbo.
You can explore the licensed trades in your own area through our trade directory and licensed-trade lookup.
Working out your budget next? Try our renovation cost calculator, and if you're financing the work, compare the best mortgage brokers by city.
We want to be upfront about how this analysis was built and where its limits are.
Using these figures? You're welcome to cite this analysis with a link back to RenoGuide.
Our analysis captures more than 283,000 current trade-licence records across the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian building and contractor registers. The true national figure is higher, because not every state and trade is covered by the registers analysed here, and some trades are licensed through separate authorities.
Builders are the largest single group, making up roughly 37% of all licence records in the data — more than one in three. Where they're licensed at the building-register level, electricians are the next most numerous, followed closely by carpenters.
Not directly. Each state register licenses a different mix of trades, so a lower count in one state often reflects which trades that register covers rather than how many tradespeople actually work there. That's why we've avoided cross-state per-capita comparisons.
It's compiled from publicly available state building and contractor licence registers — NSW Fair Trading, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission, and the Victorian building practitioner register — mapped to ten common renovation trade categories.
Every licensed business in our directory links back to its official state register, where you can confirm the licence is current before you hire. Always verify the licence number matches the person or company you're contracting with.
