Time for a reckoning over WA’s Nicheliving and construction crisis

As desperate families battle home builders like Nicheliving to get their properties completed, it’s time for the state government to take some responsibility.

Back in 2020, then-premier Mark McGowan and his treasurer Ben Wyatt were convinced by the cries of despair coming from the residential housing sector as the pandemic took hold.

The Nicheliving debacle has left Kathy Ellis still with no build after three years. Ellis says she has been ruined financially, and is now living in a campervan with her two teenagers. Credit: Getty / Jesinta Burton (composite image)

The duo, now out of government and working on corporate boards and in consultancy roles, revved up the market with millions of dollars of stimulus at a time when caution, rather than largesse, was needed.

“West Australians now have that extra added incentive to build a new home and turn their dream into a reality,” the former premier spruiked in June, 2020.

On offer was a cash incentive of $20,000 to build.

Add that to a federal government hand-out of $25,000 plus the existing $10,000 first homebuyers’ grant, and it was hardly surprising that members of the public rushed to sign building contracts, oblivious to the logistical troubles ahead.

Having said that, it’s difficult to see why anyone in the construction game would have needed a crystal ball to predict that labour shortages would occur, the cost of materials would increase and supply chains would break during a state, national and global lockdown.

“The McGowan government has had extensive conversations with industry groups to deliver this significant building bonus that will bring forward a substantial pipeline of work to boost the sector and support jobs,” was how Wyatt promoted the stimulus.

During those extensive conversations did anyone in the industry suggest a sudden surge in new builds might be unsustainable?

Within six months the premier and treasurer were back out in front of the cameras alongside building sector bosses to pat themselves on the back.

“First-home owners in particular are flocking to the property market to take advantage of the incentives,” the press release read.

It boasted about receiving more than 2400 building bonus applications and that the number of people already signed up to build had reached levels not seen in 11 years.

The hundreds of customers still without completed homes four years after signing up suggests it was irresponsible of the government not to factor in the pandemic, closed borders and rising costs to their building bonus strategy.

Likewise, it’s now fair to question whether some building companies were careless and too focused on profits without giving serious consideration to how many building contracts they could manage.

Last week, some of Nicheliving’s clients stood outside Parliament House and described how McGowan’s so-called home building “dream” had become a nightmare for them.

“I’m financially ruined because of this,” Kathy Ellis said.

She now lives in a campervan with two teenaged children and no idea when her home will be finished despite Nicheliving having had more than three years to honour the contract.

As opposition leader Shane Love said, this isn’t one or two families, it’s hundreds.

For more than a year, alarm bells were ringing very loudly over Nicheliving’s problems delivering on contracts, but only now has the Minister for Commerce Sue Ellery demanded a meeting with the company’s owners.

Nicheliving haven’t done any media interviews about their situation and in the face of the latest scrutiny they provided a statement.

“Current conditions faced by all in the market necessarily create challenges,” it read.

“We have been and will continue to work through them. Nicheliving is committed to delivering all contracted builds including those at loss-making prices.”

The company also called for more government money to help bail out struggling builders “in line with such support government has given other industries, such as the airline sector during challenging market conditions caused by COVID and lockdowns, in the past”.

But the builder shouldn’t forget that the government already pumped the sector with cash to protect it during the pandemic.

What the government has failed to do since is offer any level of protection to the ordinary people it encouraged, with great fanfare, to sign up to the state-funded stimulus package in pursuit of the “dream”.

It walked hand in hand with the building industry to lead so many people to what for many may be the point of no return.

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