State’s construction sector rebounds, reaching highest levels in a decade
Western Australia has experienced a significant increase in residential construction, achieving its strongest performance in over 10 years.
After a prolonged period of subdued activity following the mining downturn, the state has now outpaced all others in homebuilding, driven by population growth and renewed demand for both new homes and renovations.
The Housing Industry Association’s Housing Scorecard, which benchmarks states and territories against long-term averages using indicators such as construction activity, lending, and population movement, now places Western Australia at the top for the first time since 2014.
This improvement reflects a steady climb since 2019, with the state recently overtaking South Australia and Queensland. Detached home construction has been particularly robust, and the multi-unit sector has also seen a marked recovery, supported by both investors and non-first home buyers.
“Today’s HIA Housing Scorecard recognises the incredible effort of the industry over the past four years to deliver homes for Western Australian families,” said Michael McGowan (pictured right), executive director of HIA Western Australia. “It shows that we’re back on our feet, supplying twice the number of homes compared to pre-pandemic levels.
“We’ve doubled housing volumes since 2020, increased our trade workforce by 25% since 2022, and embraced innovative building methodologies that will shape the next five years of growth.”
Investors, migrants shaping market
Investor activity and migration have reinforced the state’s reputation as a destination for long-term opportunity. High levels of renovation work indicate that residents are choosing to remain and invest in their properties.
“This achievement reflects the state government’s partnership with industry – through planning reform, apprentice incentives, skilled migration support, delaying NCC (National Construction Code) 2022 adoption, and introducing new building methods in social housing programs,” McGowan said.
Despite these gains, the industry is preparing for ongoing challenges, according to McGowan. “We need to keep improving, innovating, and delivering more homes for WA families,” he said. “We need to continue to attract skilled workers to the industry and there is no better time to start looking at an apprenticeship.
“We also need the Federal Government to prioritise visa applications for skilled workers in WA that are currently caught up in the volume of overall visa applications. We need these skilled migrants, and we need them here now.”
McGowan stressed that infrastructure planning and investment priorities need to continue to be the highest level of priority for the government. “Infill and Greenfields activity will be strangled if we don’t have the best delivery system in the country, this includes approvals, power, water and sewer,” he pointed out.
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