The housing crisis in Perth has been highlighted by the fact that house rents are now rising at 13 times the rate of inflation according to Shadow Housing Minister Steve Martin.
Mr Martin said this extreme price inflation for Perth rental properties showed that the Labor Government has no plan in place to deal with the current rental crisis that is affecting the most vulnerable in the housing market.
“The latest national inflation figures released last week showed that the annual inflation rate was 1.1 per cent.
“In contrast, REIWA figures for the rental market show that the median price of a house in Perth surged by 14.6 per cent over the past year or roughly 13 times the rate of inflation.
“This huge rent price inflation is also mirrored by national figures produced by SQM Research which reveal that rents for houses in Perth surged by 15.6 per cent over the past year.
“That is more than five times the national rate of increase for capital city house rents recorded by SQM Research over the past year at 3.1 per cent.
“West Australians seeking housing also face a long wait for public housing with 15,000 applications on the public housing wait list which represents 25,000 people in total.
“These figures are outrageous while Premier McGowan and Housing Minister Carey are sitting on a massive budget surplus while vulnerable West Australians and their families are fearful of not being to put a roof over their head.
“Rents are not only rising well above the inflation rate in Perth but also in many regional towns and cities throughout regional Western Australia.
“The Labor Government must take full responsibility for this housing crisis due to their total mismanagement of housing supply in Western Australia.
“This is because Labor has produced no credible housing policy over the past four years in Government.
“This mismanagement is highlighted by the fact that the Labor Government secretly sold off 1,000 public houses in its first term of government.
“This crazy policy decision has been a major contributor to the current shortage of affordable rental properties in Perth for those people on low incomes
“And this rental crisis is set to worsen because Western Australia’s lower unemployment rate will start to result in an influx of outside skilled workers into the State who will need housing.
“These higher paid skilled workers will start to outbid lower income families for properties leading to more homelessness and higher price inflation for rental properties.
“It is disgraceful that the new Housing Minister John Carey has no plan on how he intends to deal with the housing crisis in Western Australia except to call on landlords to minimise rent increases,” he said.
