James Limnios: Property solutions needed in Perth as centenarians surge and median price breaks $1 million

With the median price of a house in Perth breaking the $1 million threshold for the first time according to the latest Domain figures, it is a timely question to ask if our housing policy is fit for purpose. The answer is not as simple as the common explanation that the demand for houses is outstripping supply. Rather the answer is more complex, and goes to the very heart of our under-stress housing sector in Western Australia. In particular, one important new demographic trend raising the question as to whether our current housing policy is fit for purpose is our aging population. Thanks to better health care, we are living longer and, as a result, need more housing choices in later life that are currently limited. This ageing time bomb is underlined by the fact that the proportion of people aged 65 and over in Western Australia is expected to rise significantly — from 16 per cent in 2022 to 20 per cent by 2036. We have clearly seen this ageing trend in the number of Western Australians living to 100 years of age and over. It may surprise many people that the number of centenarians in Western Australia has surged by 180 per cent to more than 700 during the past decade. The focus on urban sprawl has meant that many of these ageing Western Australians do not have the housing options to downsize in the area where they live, and therefore free up their homes for their families or for redevelopment. Many of them are trapped in large homes with high maintenance costs because there is a dire lack of new infill housing in their local, established suburb. The option of moving to a large housing estate in the outer suburbs far from their current surrounding network of friends, community and care is simply not an option. This focus on urban sprawl has underpinned housing policy in Perth for many decades, and it is a housing policy that is now under massive strain because it is struggling to deliver the housing outcomes that our changing society needs. For example, at a time when our birth rate is on a long-term decline and families are getting smaller, do we really need these large four-bedroom, two-bathroom homes that now dominate the outer suburbs of Perth? Social statistics indicate we do not. The latest ABS figures show that Western Australia is the least fertile state in Australia with a fertility rate of just 1.434, well behind the national rate of 1.481. This falling birth rate is already having an impact on the Western Australian housing market, with the latest census figures, for example, revealing that Western Australia has the highest number of spare bedrooms in Australia. It found that 53.6 per cent of homes in Western Australia had spare bedrooms compared with 33.2 per cent for the Northern Territory. So home buyers in Western Australia are wasting thousands of dollars to build new homes with large amounts of space they will never use. The reality is that Perth does need more homes — but the correct type of homes. We urgently need a housing mix that includes infill homes that are more sustainable in terms of our available land usage and suitable for the changing demographics in our society. And infill homes that are more affordable for our entire community and reduce the massive financial cost of infrastructure to support urban sprawl. That is why we need to urgently rethink our housing policy, with a strong focus on providing Western Australians with greater housing choices in the near-city areas. We can deliver thousands of new homes that are more affordable to our community in boutique-style low-rise housing developments quickly — if we have the correct policy settings. Not only do we need these homes now but also in the future, as we transition to households that are becoming smaller. WA Housing Minister John Carey should be congratulated on his recent announcements to boost housing infill in Perth, but much more can be achieved with an imaginative and ambitious infill strategy. Now is the time for the State Government to set up a taskforce to formulate this infill strategy. It should be aggressively supported by all levels of government when completed. In particular, the taskforce should examine the massive subsidies taxpayers spend annually on new developing urban sprawl housing that is now questionable in terms of demographic changes in our society. And whether this money would be better spent in encouraging more appropriate infill housing. I strongly recommend that this taskforce should not be comprised of theorists but of people with boots-on-the-ground practical and realistic experience like myself. James Limnios is the Managing Director of Limnios Property Group