WA slumps to fourth consecutive reduction in homes completed, falling further behind target

WA has slumped to a fourth consecutive quarter of falling home completions, leaving an even bigger task to catch up to a national construction target.

Just 4441 homes were completed in WA during the December quarter, more than a 25 per cent drop compared to in 12 months prior and 13.5 per cent below the September quarter figure, according to ABS figures.

The State has signed up to build 130,000 under the national housing accord, which sets out to build 1.2 million homes across the country by the end of June 2029.

Since the accord began in July 2024, more than 32,300 homes have been built in WA, 6600 behind its target, according to the Property Council of Australia.

At the current rate, WA will finish more than 20,000 homes behind its target and needs to build 6500 homes each quarter for the next three years.

Property Council WA executive director Nicola Brischetto said the industry had bleak expectations for the months ahead.

“We anticipate this figure will only get worse, as the fuel disruptions, chronic labour shortages and rising material costs flow through to the number of new homes being built,” she said.

“Prior to the Middle East conflict, our members were reporting that construction costs were showing signs of stabilisation.

“Hopes of that stabilisation holding are now fading fast.”

WA’s housing construction commencements rose again to 6307 in the December quarter, which Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti said was proof the industry had been moving in the right direction.

The figure is up more than 22 per cent in 12 months.

“Our commencements have jumped significantly,” she said.

“Our feedback from industry is there’s never been that amount of work that’s out there in relation to works being undertaken to complete homes.

“We’ll continue to invest in training and new programs to support housing, housing is a major priority.”

Despite the latest underwhelming stats predating the war in Iran, Ms Saffioti said housing construction was on a good path before the conflict began.

“The feedback that I’m getting from the home builders is that basically, as of a month ago, they were completing homes very quickly, and they didn’t see as many blockages,” she said.

“They had seen things calm down in relation to delivery, of course what’s happened in the Middle East is impacting the housing supply to a point, and that is in relation, really, to those early works.

“That’s why we’re working with industry through HIA, through MBA, through UDIA, through the Property Council, working to get real life examples of what’s happening on the ground and how we can help.”

Shadow housing minister Sandra Brewer said she does not believe WA would meet its accord target.

“I have no hope Western Australia will hit any housing accord target because we don’t have the right policy settings in place to support supply,” she said.

“That’s been proven now because we’ve just experienced the fourth quarter of sliding housing completions, which takes us to around 4400 homes a quarter.

“Industry are saying we need well over 6000 so it’s not going to happen and the Premier needs to decide who’s responsible for this failure.”

Master Builders WA chief executive Matt Moran said the industry was struggling with staffing numbers.

“WA is experiencing a critical skills shortage, and we estimate our state needs tens of thousands of additional workers in the residential sector this year alone to meet current demand,” he said.

“The building and construction industry has experienced an incredible amount of pressure over the past few years, and we need to remain focused on creating supply-side solutions to ease some of it.”

Summit Homes Group revealed this week it was employing 100 workers from the Philippines to fill critical staff shortages.

Another 200 are expected to be employed over the next year, to fill positions like roof plumbers, tilers, gyprockers, renderers, flooring and cabinet installers.