PERTHBuilding levies: the value of work, and the 2026 threshold change
WA building levies: the Building Services Levy and the CTF levy, how the value of work is estimated under Schedule 1
Two levies attach to building work in Western Australia, both calculated on the value of the work, and one of them changes significantly on 1 July 2026. If you are about to build or renovate, the value you put on the job affects what you pay, and getting it wrong has consequences at both ends.
Why the value of work matters
Several things key off the estimated value of building work: the building permit fee, the Building Services Levy, and the Construction Training Fund levy. So the number is not just paperwork — it drives real costs, and the rules are specific about what has to be counted.
Building and Energy's Industry Bulletin 76 sets out how to estimate it. Under Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations 2012, the value is the sum of all the relevant components including GST: all goods and manufactured goods forming part of the work, labour, services, fees, overheads and the profit margin. It is the true cost of the finished work, not a stripped-back materials figure. Under-declaring to reduce a levy is not a saving; the value of unauthorised work, for instance, is determined by the permit authority at current value regardless of what was declared.
The Building Services Levy
The Building Services Levy funds the state's building regulation and complaint-resolution system. It is collected by the permit authority when a permit or building approval certificate is issued, and remitted to Building and Energy. If a permit is refused, or an application is withdrawn before the permit is issued, the levy is refunded — but once the permit is granted, it generally cannot be refunded except where the Building Commissioner assesses exceptional circumstances.
The Construction Training Fund levy, and the 2026 change
The Construction Training Fund levy funds training for the WA construction workforce — apprentices, upskilling, the pipeline of trades the industry runs on. It is calculated at 0.2 per cent of the estimated value of construction work, and the project owner must pay it before construction starts, whether or not a building permit is required.
The important change: the threshold at which the CTF levy applies is rising from $20,000 to $100,000 on 1 July 2026. Below the threshold, no CTF levy is payable. So from that date, a great many smaller renovation and repair projects that would previously have attracted the levy no longer will. If you are planning a modest project around that date, the timing is worth knowing.
The CTF levy has its own true-up: if the final value of the work ends up $25,000 or more above the original estimate, an additional levy is payable; if it comes in $25,000 or more under, a partial refund can be claimed. So the estimate matters at the start and the actual value matters at the end.
What this means for you
If you are engaging a builder, these levies are part of the project cost, and a registered builder will account for them. The honest estimate protects you: an under-declared value can create problems with the levy true-up and with any later question about unauthorised or under-valued work.
For a buyer, this is mostly background, but it connects to the broader point that building work should be properly permitted, valued and documented. Where a home has had work done, the permit and its associated levy are part of the paper trail, alongside the notice of completion and the home indemnity insurance certificate. A pre-purchase inspection assesses the work itself; the documentation tells you it was done by the book.
Why the declared value drives everything
The value of building work is one of those administrative figures that quietly determines a great deal, which is why it is worth understanding rather than treating as a box on a form. The declared value of the work drives the levies payable, it interacts with the thresholds that determine what registration and what contracts are required, and it feeds into the permit process. Get it right and everything follows cleanly. The figure matters. Understate it, deliberately or through carelessness, and you create a mismatch between the declared value and the actual work that can have consequences, from the levies being wrong to questions about whether the correct registration and contracting requirements were met for the true value of the job.
For most owners the value of work is something the builder or the permit process handles, and it passes without incident. Where it becomes worth attention is at the margins, where the true value of a job sits near one of the thresholds that changes the obligations, or where a project has grown well beyond its original scope. A job that starts modest and expands through variations can quietly cross a threshold that changes what is required, and the declared value needs to keep pace with the reality, because the requirements attach to the actual value of the work, not to the figure that was declared at the start.
The two levies, and what they fund
Two levies attach to building work in Western Australia, and they fund different things. The Building Services Levy supports the regulation of the building industry, the system of permits, registration, and oversight that is supposed to keep standards up and give consumers recourse when things go wrong. The Construction Training Fund levy supports training in the construction industry, funding the development of the skilled workforce the sector depends on. Both are calculated by reference to the value of the work, which is another reason the declared value matters: it is the base the levies are calculated from, so an incorrect value produces incorrect levies.
The Construction Training Fund levy in particular has a threshold that determines whether it applies at all, and that threshold has been the subject of change. Understanding where the threshold sits for a given project matters, because it determines whether the levy is payable and at what point, and because a project whose value sits near the threshold needs the value assessed correctly to get the levy right. For a homeowner commissioning work, these levies are usually a line item handled as part of the permit process rather than something to manage directly, but knowing what they are and that they turn on the value of the work is part of understanding where the money goes and why the declared value is more than a formality.
What it means for an owner or buyer
For someone having work done, the practical point is that the value of the work should be declared honestly and kept current as the project evolves, because the levies, the registration requirements, and the contracting requirements all flow from it, and a mismatch between the declared and actual value can create problems that surface later. A builder who proposes understating the value to reduce the levies or sidestep a threshold is proposing something that exposes the owner as well as themselves, and it is not a corner worth cutting for the modest sum involved.
For a buyer of a property with recent building work, the value of work and the levies are part of the paper trail that tells you whether the work was done properly through the system. Building work of significant value that was carried out without the correct permits, registration, or contracts, perhaps because its value was understated to slip beneath a threshold, is unapproved or improperly approved work, and that is a liability that transfers with the property. It is one of the reasons the documentation behind recent work is worth confirming: not because the levies themselves are large, but because they are part of the evidence that the work was done through the proper channels rather than around them, and work done around the channels can cost the new owner to regularise. That cost transfers with the house.
Common questions
How is the value of building work estimated in WA?
Under Schedule 1 of the Building Regulations, it is the sum of all relevant components including GST: goods, labour, services, fees, overheads and profit margin. Building and Energy's Industry Bulletin 76 sets this out.
What is the CTF levy?
The Construction Training Fund levy funds training for the WA construction workforce. It is 0.2% of the estimated value of construction work, paid by the project owner before work starts, whether or not a permit is required.
Is the CTF levy threshold changing?
Yes. From 1 July 2026 the threshold at which the CTF levy applies rises from $20,000 to $100,000, so many smaller projects will no longer attract it.
This comes up on every pre-purchase building inspection and building stage inspections we carry out.
Read next: building permits in WA: BA1, BA2, and when you need one and notice of Completion: the BA7 that closes out a build.
Sources
Read rather than recalled. Summarised here; the documents themselves are Crown copyright and are linked rather than reproduced.