A strong start to 2020 has assisted Border builders to keep working amid the coronavirus crisis, although apprehension about the future remains.
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Many Albury-Wodonga display homes are open by appointment while construction projects already in progress have continued.
Metricon Homes chief executive Mario Biasin said customers were taking virtual tours of homes online and booking appointments to see display houses.
"Traffic to displays is now understandably down due to this period of disruption but our new sales deposits, whilst being lower than previous weeks, are still encouragingly strong," he said.
White Box Rise land sales and marketing manager Amanda Kotzur said builders in the Wodonga estate were trying to remain positive and the recent government incentives had been well received.
"Inquiries certainly dropped off, which was to be expected, but there were already quite a few people in the pipeline that builders are still working with and some people are still proceeding, which is really nice," she said.
"The start of the year is always good traditionally because people are very motivated; New Year's resolutions, they've got time off together as a family or a couple. January, February, March is usually a boom time."
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Andrew Stern, of JMP Developments, said stages at Kinchington Estate Wodonga and Tangambalanga's Kiewa Valley Estate were still under construction, with historic low interest rates helping the industry.
"The year started off very well; that was off the back of money being very cheap," he said.
"There was a very good sentiment going into 2020 and I think the majority of people in the sector were expecting a very strong year.
"It's a little bit of uncharted territory now, there are things that we can't answer because we've never seen it before, it's different to previous downturns."
Mr Biasin said Metricon, along with other builders, was advocating to governments that the building and construction industry was an ongoing essential service.
"It is vital that we keep these more than one million Australians safely in work," he said.
"The effects on our economy and people's lives will be devastating if it is shut down."
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Mr Stern said there had been "plenty of co-operation and intent" from federal and state governments to assist businesses at this time.
"Local government as well has got a role to play with the services it provides and we're all working in this as a partnership," he said.
"The closer we can work together to keep the economy moving along, the better it's going to be for all of us.