What keeps me up at night? 

Looking at the property market, you would assume that times are good. Homes are selling in a median of nine days and achieving very good prices. Plus, there is strong demand for rentals, with properties leasing in a median of 19 days.

If you just consider the figures, then yes, times are good. But I worry about the effect these ‘good times’ are having on people.

I’ve heard some commentators say Perth is undervalued and we should be on par with Sydney. I wonder why we’d want to have Sydney prices? The ‘Great Australian Dream’ is out of reach for many people there. According to the latest report from REIA, housing affordability (the proportion of weekly family income needed to meet loan repayments) in New South Wales is at 57.9 per cent compared to 39.5 per cent in Western Australia. Why would we want our housing to become less affordable, particularly for those trying to buy their first home?

I’m very aware of how the state of the rental market is affecting tenants. It’s also taken its toll on my team of property managers, who have to say no to very deserving people day after day due to a lack of rental supply, and see people on the verge of homelessness.

Homelessness keeps me up at night. There is a stigma attached to people who are homeless, but we are all just a step away from becoming homeless.

A serious car accident, business failure, relationship breakdown, unemployment, bad health, or family and domestic violence can quickly change the direction of our lives. I’ve seen it happen within my wider family and it can happen to anyone.

Sadly these ‘fabulous’ market conditions are seeing the vulnerable become more vulnerable. It’s like a game of musical chairs. Supply is constrained, prices are rising – the music stops and the vulnerable miss out.

Behind all this is the significant imbalance between supply and demand. Give me 50,000 homes and we could solve this crisis. But it’s not that easy. There are still many challenges impacting new supply. While timeframes in the building industry have returned to normal for people who sign a contract now, builders were impacted by the COVID incentives and will only build to capacity. Developers are challenged by red tape and infrastructure supply when it comes to releasing new land for new homes. The financial viability of new, affordable apartment projects doesn’t stack up and so they’re not getting built.

And on top of that we desperately need more social housing to help the vulnerable members of our community. It’s a dilemma.

I acknowledge the work the State Government is doing to improve housing supply, and I know it will have an eventual effect. But in the meantime, it keeps me up at night.

Joe White
REIWA President