Meet the Millennial Entrepreneurs Leading Australia’s Home Construction Industry

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Turnkey Building Group

Justin Engelke and Jordan Wilson launched Turnkey Building Group in 2021 to change the way Australians experience homebuilding. In their late twenties, they noticed a recurring issue: buyers leaving display home offices confused, overwhelmed, and unsure of their next steps. Determined to simplify the process, they created a company that helps clients navigate the building industry from start to finish.

Turnkey isn’t just a building company. The firm connects homebuyers with more than 25 construction companies across Victoria and oversees the entire process from start to finish. Since its launch, it has guided more than 400 clients, ranging from first-time buyers to seasoned investors.

Millennials Rewrite the Blueprint

If the Great Australian Dream once meant a quarter-acre block and a mortgage as long as a cricket match, the new playbook focuses on flexibility, fresh ideas, and, above all, empowerment. Millennials, often dismissed as the “avocado toast” generation, now outpace their boomer predecessors in property investing through strategies like rent-vesting, co-investing, and targeting regional hotspots.

Behind the scenes, companies like Turnkey Building Group quietly change the builder-buyer relationship. Launched in 2021, it has managed $1 billion in construction projects and connected homebuyers with 25 different builders across Victoria, simplifying the process from the first handshake to the final handover.

Building Dreams Without Nightmares

The process does not just get easier; it becomes smarter. The Australian construction industry, forecasted to reach AUD 193.2 billion in 2025 and expand to AUD 256.14 billion by 2029, faces rising costs, labor shortages, and supply chain headaches that have turned home-building into an obstacle course. Building costs are expected to rise between 4.5 and 6 percent across most cities in 2025, while the federal government’s goal of constructing 1.2 million new homes over five years demands an additional 90,000 workers, far more than the current workforce can supply.

Turnkey Building Group’s one-stop-shop model offers everything from landscaping to letterboxes, venturing into property management and real estate sales. Engelke and Wilson have created what they call Australia’s first true property ecosystem. This model appeals to millennials who crave transparency, efficiency, and control in a market that often feels rigged against them. “What we offer is what you see is what you get. We make sure that our builders complete everything from the landscaping to the fence to the letterbox and clothesline. Everything is done for our customers,” Engelke says.

Millennials Raise the Roof

The next time a boomer grumbles about millennials killing the housing market, remind them this generation is not just buying homes. They are remaking how homes are built, bought, and managed. With companies like Turnkey Building Group leading the charge, the future of Australian construction looks less like a fixer-upper and more like a grand design.

Engelke and Wilson’s story proves that sometimes all it takes to change an industry is a fresh perspective, and perhaps a better cup of coffee.