Western Australia will fail to meet its share of the National Housing Accord target unless it dramatically increases its home completion rate, the Property Council WA is warning.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Wednesday morning shows only 3957 homes were built across Western Australia in the 2024 June quarter - the last reporting period before the National Housing Accord timeframe begins.
The June quarter's 3957 home completions were also a drop from the 4305 completions recorded in the previous March quarter.
Western Australia needs to build at least 6540 new homes each quarter to deliver its fair share of the National Housing Accord target. Overall, 130,000 new homes need to be built in Western Australia during the National Housing Accord reporting period (July 2024 to July 2029).
Property Council WA Executive Director Nicola Brischetto said workforce availability and the financial feasibility of constructing large housing projects, such as apartments, are the biggest barriers to delivering greater housing supply.
Comments attributable to Property Council WA Executive Director Nicola Brischetto:
"Western Australia simply isn't building enough homes."
"Today's Australian Bureau of Statistics data is damning, we are falling far too short in the delivery of new homes to meet our fair share of the National Housing Accord target.
"The dream of home ownership will become further out of reach for young West Australians and our long-term economic growth will be stifled if we're unable to dramatically increase our home completion rate.
"Western Australia needs to be building 6540 new homes each quarter to complete our fair share of the National Housing Accord. The state hasn't achieved that many new home completions in a single quarter since December 2016.
"The Western Australian Government has already done the hard yards in modernising the state's planning system, everything else now needs to be put on the table."
