WA housing crisis 91 per cent worse in two years: | Australian Markets

New analysis has revealed a grim actuality for a whole lot of hundreds of households in the grip of a extreme housing crisis that has solely intensified in the previous two years.

The Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre discovered 210,000 West Australian households now believed their housing to be unaffordable, an increase of 91 per cent since 2023.

The severity of the crisis was laid naked in a new report titled Housing Affordability in Western Australia 2025, utilizing contemporary insights from the Australian Housing Conditions Data Infrastructure Survey.

The report discovered solely 39 per cent of renters and 48 per cent of mortgage holders in WA thought-about their housing reasonably priced.

Researchers revealed the state’s housing market was beneath intense stress from speedy population growth, gradual housing provide, hovering rents and construction delays, with no instant finish to the crisis in sight.

With 119,000 new residents since 2023, demand for housing had surged well beyond provide.

WA recorded a shortfall of 4000 new houses regardless of more than 20,000 houses being accomplished final yr, essentially the most since 2017.

Building instances in WA had been the best in the nation taking more than 15 months to finish a home, including $100,000 to the price of a new home.

A growing discrepancy between key employee wages and housing prices meant most single-income staff reminiscent of nurses, police officers and firefighters had been priced out of home possession in many elements of Perth.

As the population grew by 4.2 per cent, solely 694 new rental properties had been added to the market between March 2023 and September 2024.

Rentals had been additionally in short provide with a lack of 7700 houses, pushing rents up 76 per cent in the previous 5 years and tenants out to the fringes of the metro space including stress, complexity and additional prices to their lives.

The dire scenario worsened housing stress notably for renters on low or single incomes.

Researchers discovered persistent shortfalls in housing and persistent underinvestment in social housing had strained assist providers and uncovered failures in WA’s housing system.

“This report shows that homelessness in WA is becoming more widespread and more entrenched,” the report said.

Homelessness elevated by 8 per cent and tough sleeping more than doubled since 2016, whereas 25,000 people sought homelessness providers final financial yr.

The report made 33 coverage suggestions to improve the state’s housing affordability saying whereas the state authorities had taken steps to prioritise housing, the unprecedented scale of the problem known as for a co-ordinated response from all sectors.

BCEC director Alan Duncan mentioned housing was no longer simply an financial subject however a breakdown in the flexibility of WA’s housing system to fulfill the wants of abnormal West Australians.

“We’re building more homes, but it’s not enough to meet demand,” he mentioned.

“Housing costs continue to rise faster than incomes and what’s being built often isn’t where people want or need to live.”

“Despite some signs of a softening housing market, there has been an accumulation of pressure on households from years of high housing costs, low rental vacancies and an inadequate supply of new stock.

“These challenges risk slowing the state’s economic development and continue to affect the most financially vulnerable people in our community.

“As affordable homes vanish from inner and middle suburbs, low and moderate-income renters are being pushed to the outer edges of the city where jobs and services are scarcer.

“This is reshaping the social map of our State and deepening inequality.”

Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute director Steven Rowley mentioned price pressures had pushed more and more households into a housing crisis.

Professor Rowley mentioned there had been a 330 per cent growth in precedence social housing instances since 2018, with 6300 of these in best need ready to be homed.

While he welcomed the federal government’s dedication to increase social housing stock including 1700 items in two years, he mentioned a lot more needed to be completed.

“We need around 16,000 more social housing units to raise WA’s social housing provision to around 5 per cent of total stock, roughly equivalent to levels in NSW and SA,” he mentioned.

“WA’s social housing waitlist has grown to 20,700, an increase of more than a third in five years.”