HOUSING — REGIONS — AVAILABILITY
4. Hon COLIN TINCKNELL to the Leader of the House
representing the Minister for Housing:
(1) With rental
housing vacancies at record lows around the state, especially across the South
West Region, and with state-owned homes sitting
vacant, what is the government doing to increase the supply of housing
in the regions?
(2) Does the
government think it is acceptable for those in priority situations to be forced
to wait an average of 51 weeks for help from the government; and, if not, what
is the government doing about reducing this wait time?
Hon SUE ELLERY replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question.
(1) The state
government has introduced a range of measures to improve housing supply across
the state, including in regional Western Australia. The $20 000 building bonus
grant is incentivising new home construction, with recently released Australian
Bureau of Statistics data showing the highest year-on-year increase in building
approvals in 31 years. In the 12 months to February this year there were more
than 21 500 new home building approvals across Western Australia. The state
government also increased the borrowing limit for Keystart by $243 million and
eased the eligibility criteria, ensuring lower income Western Australians will
have greater access to affordable home ownership. Through the $116 million
Regional Land Booster program, the state government is also providing cheaper
residential land across regional Western Australia, which includes lots in a range
of regional towns.
(2) On coming to
government in March 2017, the average waitlist times for public housing in the
South West Region for the priority waiting list was 30 weeks and the wait-turn
waiting list was 160 weeks. As at March 2021, the average wait time for the
priority waiting list in the South West Region has reduced to 21 weeks, and for
the wait-turn waiting list it is 96 weeks. Additionally, the McGowan state
government is delivering a number of
investment packages and other initiatives to increase public housing stock and,
consequently, to reduce wait times. These include investing $541 million into
new public housing stock, refurbishment of
existing stock and homeless support services through the social housing economic
recovery package and the housing and homelessness investment package;
suspending the sale of stock to retain as public housing stock; reviewing all
current policies and procedures regarding vacant social housing stock to best
minimise the number of vacancies; and reviewing public housing stock due to be
decommissioned, or not in use due to being at the end of its working life or in
poor condition, for possible refurbishment.