WA's housing affordability crisis laid bare as report details pain for renters and would-be homeowners
More than half of West Australian households consider their housing unaffordable, an increase of 91 per cent in just two years, according to a new report.
This was true of both renters and those paying off a mortgage, the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC) report found, with the housing market beset by multiple problems including rapid population growth, limited supply, escalating rents and construction delays.
The report shows the median weekly rent in WA has increased by 76 per cent since 2020, and now sits at $740.
BCEC director Alan Duncan said WA's housing crisis had been "years in the making".
While more than 20,000 new homes being built were completed in the last year, WA still fell 4,000 homes short of its target set under the National Housing Accord.
And Perth fell 7,700 rental homes short of keeping pace with population growth from March 2023 to the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, housing build times have blown out to 15.6 months, from seven months in 2018-19.
Professor Duncan said the lack of housing was pushing people to the outskirts of the city, to areas that lacked public transport and essential services.
"There's a shift away from rental opportunities in inner Perth and far more towards the outer suburbs, further away from amenity, further away from jobs," he said.
Professor Duncan said the housing crisis was reshaping the social map of the state.
"In order to find affordable rental housing, [low income households] will need to travel progressively further and further away from the centre of Perth, and that's one of the things that's really pushing inequality in the state," he said.
"We are witnessing a breakdown in the ability of WA's housing system to meet the needs of ordinary West Australians."
"There's an awful long way to go before the housing system gets anywhere near back to balance."
But the report also outlines a range of measures its authors believe could provide immediate, medium and long-term relief to struggling households.
Quick fixes include expanding rent assistance programs, reinstating and improving crisis and transitional accommodation and boosting support for homelessness support services.
In the medium term, the report recommends fast-tracking housing completions by increasing subsidies, streamlining approvals and mobilising the construction workforce, as well as targeting groups such as first home buyers and key workers for extra support.
Longer-term solutions include more ambitious housing targets — at least 1,200 new social housing dwellings a year — along with axing stamp duty in favour of a "more efficient" tax that encourages mobility and unlocking more public land for development.
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