Housing Affordability in WA: A tale of two tenures

Adam Crowe, Alan Duncan, Amity James and Steven Rowley
Additional contact information
Adam Crowe: School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Curtin Business School
Amity James: School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Curtin Business School
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Alfred Michael Dockery, Chris Twomey and Astghik Mavisakalyan

No FWA15, Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre Report series from Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School

Abstract: Housing Affordability in WA: A tale of two tenures’ is the fourth Housing Affordability report from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), and the fifteenth in the BCEC Focus on WA series. This latest report offers new insights into housing affordability in Western Australia, and on peoples’ housing experiences in Perth and across regional WA. The report includes a special analysis of housing market activity and housing affordability over the course of the pandemic The report presents new data to understand housing affordability in Western Australia, how it has changed over time and across our suburbs, how it impacts a household’s ability to meet every day expenditure and the impact COVID-19 has had on our housing preferences. This report includes important new findings from the fourth BCEC Housing Affordability Survey, collecting data from more than 4,000 households in April 2021 across Western Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. One of the strongest take-homes from the 2021 BCEC Housing Affordability Survey is that housing affordability has improved in Western Australia, but this improvement hasn’t been evenly spread. A housing affordability divide between tenures exists between those who own their home or are in the process of buying one, and those who are renting. In fact owner-occupiers are more comfortable now than they have been in some time, whereas those in the private rental market are struggling to make ends meet. This divide is likely to increase in the coming months as the full impacts of the lifting of the rental moratorium are realised and pressure continues on an already tight rental market. If rents were to increase by 10 per cent this would have a major impact on the financial wellbeing of over 100,000 renters in WA, disproportionately affecting renters in receipt of rent assistance. The report highlights key priorities for governments, including the need to increase investment in social housing to deliver 2,000 dwellings per annum; to provide greater financial assistance for low income private renters; and to progress a number of reforms around taxation and stamp duty.

Keywords: Western Australia; WA economy; housing pathways; housing affordability; income and wealth; financial disadvantage; housing stress (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O18 R21 R31 R38 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 158 pages
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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https://bcec.edu.au/assets/2021/06/BCEC-Housing-Af ... -Report-2021_WEB.pdf (application/pdf)

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