WA's affordability housing boost given industry thumbs up

The Western Australian Planning Commission has announced that they are making changes to the planning system, aiming to boost housing affordability.

The changes follow last year’s Planning Provisions for Affordable Housing Discussion Paper and have now become part of the Affordable Housing Strategy, which looks to bring 20,000 new affordable housing options by 2020.

Western Australian Planning Commission chairperson Eric Lumsden said that as the state’s population grows, the emphasis on affordable housing would be an increasingly important priority.

“Housing affordability is a complex area, which is why we are adopting a staged approach that encourages the use of incentives in the first instance,” he said.

The voluntary incentives may be planning concessions that reduce costs or that may improve the outcomes for both developers and buyers.

 “The WAPC will assess the effectiveness of incentives and, if it proves necessary, will in the longer term investigate further potential policy approaches to deliver affordable housing supply,” said Lumsden.

These changes have been welcomed by the Property Council of Australia, who has been encouraging the government to consider voluntary incentives to increase the supply of affordable housing.

Executive director of the Property Council, Joe Lenzo, said that incentives are the most effective long-term strategy for delivering affordable housing.

“Incentives that reduce costs and improve development outcomes will enable more affordable living options to be provided for the community,” said Lenzo.

“The incentives need to be designed intelligently so that they increase a project’s feasibility and do not impact on its commercial viability, encouraging developers to embrace this opportunity.”

Lenzo said that tailoring the incentives to prioritise housing diversity and supply is the key to providing more options.

“Affordability is more than just the sticker price. It is all well and good to throw up a cheap house in the middle of nowhere, but it will only cost that resident more in utility payments, access and cost of transport and proximity to employment.”