Further billion-dollar housing commitment ‘inadequate’

The commitments included hundreds of millions in stamp duty relief for first-home buyers as well as $101 million for a Housing Enabling Infrastructure Fund to unlock 33,000 new homes.

West Australian Treasurer Rita Saffioti delivers the budget at WA Parliament House on Thursday. Picture: Philip Gostelow

A commitment to pump another $1.4bn into addressing Western Australia’s housing issues has been branded “inadequate” by a leading economist.

WA Treasurer Rita Saffioti on Thursday detailed a series of measures aimed at addressing issues in the state’s housing market, which has been marked in recent years by almost non-existent rental availability and steadily increasing prices.

Those commitments included hundreds of millions of dollars in stamp duty relief for first-home buyers – who have been increasingly stung by the tax in recent years as house prices climbed – as well as $101m for a Housing Enabling Infrastructure Fund the government expects will unlock another 33,000 new homes.

Almost $200m is being directed towards supporting new housing and projects in regional WA.

But Committee for Economic Development of Australia chief economist Cassandra Winzar said the housing measures were “inadequate to address the size of the challenge” in WA.

“A critical issue holding back progress on new home builds in WA, including social housing, is a lack of construction workforce. WA has the longest construction times in the country by some margin and workforce shortages are one of the key drivers of this,” she said.

“We need to further address weak construction productivity by reducing barriers to firms growing and becoming more efficient, including reducing the high levels of regulation in the home construction sector and addressing complex planning and zoning regulations at local government level.”

The stamp duty relief for first-home buyers, she said, fell well short of the broader stamp duty reform that was needed.

Ms Saffioti defended the state’s efforts on housing, saying that improving affordability by increasing supply was a key focus of the government.

Increasing housing supply would in turn take some pressures off rent.

“There has already been a significant effort in increasing housing supply. The national figures show that we’re leading the nation in relation to increasing housing supply,” Ms Saffioti said.

WA has experienced some of its highest-ever levels of population growth in recent years, amid increased arrivals from both interstate and overseas.

The state’s population has grown by more than 300,000 in the past five years and its growth rate peaked at 3.4 per cent in September 2023.