More work needed to meet housing target

With the National Housing Accord almost two years in, Western Australia is building at near-record levels, but completed homes are still not keeping pace with the Federal Government’s ambitious target of 129,000 new homes for our state by June 2029.

Since the National Accord began in September 2024, WA has completed 37,312 dwellings, averaging 5330 homes each quarter. To meet WA’s target under the accord, we need to be completing about 6450 dwellings every quarter.

So far, despite significant planning reforms and focus on funding enabling infrastructure for housing delivery, we have not reached our quarterly housing target once. Over the seven quarters to March, this has left WA with a cumulative shortfall of 7838 new dwellings.

While substantial, that deficit is below Queensland’s shortfall of 27,058 homes and New South Wales’ 53,725. The critical question now is: how quickly can we close the gap?

If we continue delivering homes at the average rate achieved since September 2024, UDIA estimates WA would reach 129,000 dwellings in the June 2030 quarter – one year later than the National Accord deadline, however even that forecast is optimistic.

Analysis from the UDIA National Housing Pipeline project shows there is a significant amount of zoned land identified for future housing across Greater Perth, where most new homes will need to be delivered, however the problem is that much of this land faces development constraints – including lack of essential infrastructure – which continue to limit the number of homes able to be delivered.

When those constraints and developers’ future intentions are considered, the evidence suggests WA may not reach the 129,000 target until 2031 or 2032.

This reinforces why we cannot focus solely on how much land is zoned for new housing or how many homes are under construction when we estimate how much housing we are delivering. Ultimately, success must be measured by how many new homes are completed and available for Western Australians to move into.

The State Government has introduced a broad range of reforms and initiatives aimed at boosting housing supply over the last few years, and UDIA WA supports these measures. But housing delivery takes time and some reforms will take years to translate into additional completed homes.

This is why it remains critical that all levels of government and industry continue working together to remove constraints, improve development feasibility and bring forward housing wherever possible.

The National Accord target was always ambitious and meeting it is becoming increasingly difficult, but the focus must remain firmly on accelerating the delivery of homes across the housing continuum as efficiently and cost effectively as possible, so more people can find a home that meets their needs.