The collapse of one of Perth’s best-known residential building companies is being blamed on mounting pressure on the home construction industry, as one lobby group tips more local builders will go under.

Collier Homes, first established in 1959 and more recently operated by veteran builder Dario Amara, was placed into liquidation earlier this week.

It is the latest in a series of building company collapses that have plagued the industry nation-wide since the COVID pandemic.

Housing Industry Association executive director Michael McGowan said the loss of the company was significant.

“Many in the industry have either worked for or had a home built by Collier Homes over the last 60 years,” he told ABC Radio Perth.

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Mr McGowan said a surge in costs post-COVID combined with fixed-price contracts for buyers has left many builders walking a financial tightrope.

“Unfortunately over the last three or four years they have been caught in a situation where they’ve had to absorb some of those price rises,” he said.

Few home builds affected

Commerce Minister Sue Ellery said Mr Amara’s building license expired early last year and was cancelled in June.

She said that meant the company had very few projects left unfinished.

“I don’t have the exact number but it is small,” she said.

Ms Ellery said the government had not been alerted to any issues with Collier Homes and there had been no complaints against the company.

Home Builders Action Group chairman Jason Janssen said post-COVID stimulus measures intended to keep the industry afloat have instead contributed to the issues now putting pressure on construction companies.

“[The] industry has been suffering for the last three years since the government grants were released. The price increases that have affected the WA building industry over this time have been unprecedented and could not have been foreseen,” he said.

“It was a really tricky time and probably easy to sit back and say some may have taken on too much. But during that period, it was really hard to get a view on who was doing what.”

‘We can’t blame anyone’

But Ms Ellery said the government was not at fault for trying to turbocharge the industry.