Bruce Rock Engineering has greenlit a $10 million expansion at its Wheatbelt trailer manufacturing site which will make the company’s local footprint six times larger.

The expansion will add 5,000sqm of floorspace, a new office building, and a 12-metre, 2,500-tonne press brake, reportedly the largest in Australia.

Bruce Rock Engineering plans to have the build finished early next year.

In a statement upon announcing the expansion, the company said it was proud to be investing in its hometown.

“At Bruce Rock Engineering, we’re proud of where we’ve come from and committed to where we’re going,” a company spokesperson said.

“Bruce Rock is home. It’s where we’ve built our business, our people and our reputation over more than four decades, and we’re proud to continue manufacturing here in the Wheatbelt.

“The project represents a long-term investment in our people, our community, and the future of regional manufacturing, while creating the capability and infrastructure to support the next chapter of Bruce Rock Engineering.

“Bruce Rock is where we started. It’s where we’re continuing to build.”

The company was founded by the Verhoogt family in Bruce Rock in 1980 and has kept its hometown facility despite significant statewide growth in the past decade.

BRE expanded into metals manufacturing in the 2000s via establishment of its Transbeam subsidiary, now domiciled at a 16,000sqm factory in Forrestfield.

It has also bolted on a tyre wholesaling arm, Bruce Rock Tyres, and in July this year acquired Kalgoorlie-based fire protection systems manufacturer Quitfire.

Its core business has grown naturally and via acquisitions, building a site in Port Hedland, buying D-Trans Motor Body Builders to establish a presence in Geraldton, and setting up sales offices in New South Wales and Queensland.

The company employs more than 400 people and counts close to every major trucking firm operating in WA as a customer.

That staff count has grown from about 60 in 2015, and 200 in 2021.

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Florida dominated a new list of markets attracting out-of-town shoppers for newly built homes, with outside shoppers generating more than 80% of new-construction views in several of the state’s metro areas.

Lakeland led the nation, with out-of-town shoppers accounting for more than 83% of new-construction views during the second quarter, followed by Cape Coral at 82.4%, Port St. Lucie at 80.9% and North Port at 80.5%, according to a new Realtor.com report.

Nationwide, 67.2% of views of new-construction listings came from out-of-metro shoppers, compared with 65.4% for existing-home listings.

Durham, North Carolina, rounded out the top five at 80.2%.

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Deltona, Florida; Charleston and Greenville, South Carolina; Stockton, California; and Augusta, Georgia, also drew strong interest from out-of-market shoppers, the report found.

“The new builds are competitively priced in these metros, so out-of-metro buyers who maybe did not necessarily have new construction in mind find lots of new builds that fall into their price filters,” Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner said in a statement.

Affordability and Sun Belt lifestyle are among the major factors driving out-of-market interest in those areas, according to Berner.

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The difference in metro-wide median new-construction listing prices can be substantial.

Lakeland’s median new-construction listing price was $315,821 in the second quarter, compared with $1,946,685 in Miami.  Many shoppers viewing homes in Lakeland came from Miami, Orlando and Tampa, the report found.

Cape Coral, meanwhile, attracted shoppers browsing from Miami, New York City and Chicago.

Brian Stephens, a real estate agent and team leader with eXp Realty in Lakeland, said builders are also attracting buyers with closing-cost assistance and mortgage-rate buy-downs.

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“They have slightly more inventory, and they offer to pay for the buyers’ closing costs and even buy the interest rate down,” Stephens told Realtor.com. “Why purchase a resale when you can purchase a new home and get a warranty and everything is brand-new?”

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Those incentives are becoming increasingly important as builders compete for buyers nationwide.

Nationally, the median asking price for a newly built home was $450,256 during the second quarter, down 0.1% from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.