The building industry’s peak body is applauding the success of the HomeBuilder scheme, which is expected to support $18 billion worth of residential construction and renovation projects. “There is no doubt that the Federal Government’s decisive action to implement HomeBuilder in the eye of the COVID storm saved the day for thousands of small builders and tradies, the people they employ and communities they support around the country,” Master Builder Association CEO Denita Wawn said in a statement. “Without HomeBuilder thousands of small builder and tradie businesses would have gone under, and hundreds of thousands of jobs would have been lost,” she said. New home sales have nearly doubled during December to the highest level in almost 20 years as buyers sought to secure the full grant before the original end-of-year deadline. Introduced in June, the scheme offered $25,000 grants for the building of new homes or renovations. It has …