The WA Liberals will significantly boost WA’s pipeline of housing supply, with a $500 million fund to tackle Western Australia’s housing crisis by directly investing in infrastructure that unlocks more housing.
“Our Building a Better Future blueprint lays the groundwork for our commitment to deliver more housing for Western Australians,” said Libby Mettam, WA Liberal Leader.
“Homeownership is in the Liberal Party’s DNA – it provides a stable economic foundation for families, allowing them to become more independent and less reliant on government. It is the cornerstone of a strong society and a prosperous economy.
“Our plan will help unlock homes for a generation of Western Australians and put downward pressure on housing costs during Labor’s cost-of-living crisis.”
The half-a-billion-dollar investment from the WA Liberals will directly fund enabling infrastructure, like sewerage, roads and water, that unlocks more housing.
“Our Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund will fast-track the delivery of up to 90,000 homes in key growth areas, as well as 10,000 apartments.” said Steve Martin, Shadow Minister for Housing.
“In other words, we are putting money on the table to boost WA’s housing supply by up to 100,000 new homes.
“This is a key plank in our commitment to Western Australians: a WA Liberal Government will build more homes.”
Expenditure under the Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund will come through two streams, each designed to address a different aspect of Roger Cook’s housing crisis by funding infrastructure projects which will directly unlock more housing.
Two initial infrastructure grant programs will be funded via the Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund (HIIF):
• Enabling Infrastructure Program: $300m to fund enabling infrastructure for housing that can be delivered quickly and efficiently, like greenfield housing. This will help unlock up to 90,000 homes in key growth areas.
• Apartment Support Program: $200m to make multiple dwelling apartment projects more economically viable, supporting more of these projects to proceed. This will help unlock up to 10,000 additional apartments.
“We need to build at least 125,000 homes over the next five years to meet our population growth. This fund directly boosts housing supply and gets more WA families into homes,” said Mr Martin
“The Enabling Infrastructure Program will run through a competitive grant applications process, funding the projects which will unlock the most homes for Western Australians, as quickly as possible.
“The Apartment Support Program will contribute up to $20,000 per dwelling for new apartment developments, which means, for example, a ten-apartment development could receive as much as $200,000.
“This will provide support towards infrastructure, headworks, and statutory fees and charges to help more high-density projects stack up economically, and in more locations than are economically feasible to do now.”
The Apartment Support Program will replace Labor’s existing Targeted Apartment Rebate, which only provides a rebate for water and power costs directly to the Water Corporation or Western Power. A “do-no-harm” approach will mean existing approved applications will be honoured.
“We’re in a cost-of-living crisis, and housing costs are commonly the biggest expenses that families face. That’s why we are putting such an emphasis on boosting housing supply”, said Mr Martin.
“Our Building a Better Future blueprint, our stamp duty cuts for first homebuyers, and now the HIIF, lay out a clear plan for actually building more homes – not just talking about it.
“The stamp duty tax cut lessens the impact of Roger Cook and John Carey’s housing crisis, while the HIIF tackles the underlying issues they have caused – and ignored.”
“Only the WA Liberals’ Building a Better Future plan will deliver real housing choices to enable more Western Australians to access their own home,” said Ms Mettam.
