The number of WA houses completed in the March quarter has fallen more than 1000 homes short of what is needed each quarter to keep pace with WA’s projected population growth.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Wednesday shows only 4242 new homes were completed in the March 2024 quarter, down from 4426 in December 2023 and 5047 in September 2023 quarters.
Property Council WA executive director Nicola Brischetto said the latest results were a “warning sign” that WA’s home completion rate was going backwards.
The numbers are also bleak on a national level, with home supply in the first quarter of the year well below the levels needed to meet the country’s housing targets.
![Nicola Brischetto is the new executive director at the Property Council of WA.](https://timesofsydney.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/45326647c7cf8240f9790ba6002230a747843a4a-4x3-x222y0w3556h2667.jpg)
There were 41,329 homes completed In the March quarter across Australia, a decrease from 45,643 in the December 2023 quarter.
This represents a seasonally-adjusted quarterly fall of 9.5 per cent and is the second lowest quarter of housing completions in the last 10 years.
“Our continued skilled worker shortage and the financial feasibility of starting new housing projects presents significant challenges to building new homes in WA,” Ms Brichetto said.
“To increase the rate of home completions and ensure every West Australian has access to secure and affordable housing, we must adopt a ‘yes’ attitude towards apartment living,” she added.
For WA to pull its weight in meeting the National Housing Accord targets, Ms Brichetto said building new homes, including apartments and townhouses, in our established suburbs would also be crucial.
“In the past five years, WA has built about 75,000 new homes. Over the next five years, we must raise that number to at least 120,000 to help achieve the National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes across Australia.“
Despite the quarterly fall, Housing Institute of Australia WA executive director Michael McGowan highlighted that home completions in the State were increasing annually.
“There were 15,820 detached homes completed in the most recent 12 months, up by 22.3 per cent on the annual rate a year earlier. Total dwelling completions reached 17,504 up by 16 per cent on the previous 12 months,” he said.
Additionally, Mr McGowan said home building commencements were also up both quarterly and annually.
“There were 3822 detached homes that commenced construction in the March quarter 2024 in Western Australia. This is 38.1 per cent higher compared to the previous quarter, bringing the annual rate of commencements to 12,480, up from its 2023 trough of 11,690,” he said.
“Western Australia is getting through its pipeline of homes under construction, The results today are positive and we expect this number to grow further over the next twelve months.
“There is strong demand for new homes and the capacity of the industry is growing but we need to continue to invest in skilled labour skilled to help grow this capacity further and faster.”
HIA also released its New Home Sales report on Wednesday, which reflects this demand over the last 12 months
“The volume of new homes sold in WA increased by 25.4 per cent in 2023/24,” Mr McGowan said.
“This is the largest financial year increase in new home sales across all large states.
“Sales in Western Australia had already been recovering since the second half of 2023, ahead of Queensland and South Australia which have only recovered in recent months.”
According to Mr McGowan, new home sales in the State had defied the dampening impact of higher interest rates, thanks to the relatively lower local cost of delivering a completed home to market.