Australia’s current skills shortage is continuing to push up the price of trade labour. Skilled electricians and plumbers in particular can be assured of a very healthy income when settling in Australia.

"A recent government report showed a 0.5 per cent rise in trade vacancies over the past 12 months, with vacancies for electrical and electronics trades rising 7.7 per cent," said HomeSource managing director Pia Vogel.

"These skill shortages are driving up the costs of labour, with a 1.1 per cent rise in the cost of contracting electricians in the year to March and a 4.3 per cent rise overall for the 13 trades monitored in the HIA-Austral Bricks Trades Report," she added.

Many of the trades seeing these increases are also on the Australian Migration Occupations in Demand List (MODL). Migrants can claim extra points when applying under one of these occupations.