‘The water is frozen in those pipes’: Renters told to hold on for another year before housing crisis eases

South West real estate experts say the Bunbury housing market can expect little to no change for another year as WA begins to come out of its biggest housing and worker shortage as the State’s borders reopen. In January, new research by online home lender Well Home Loans identified Dalyellup, Carey Park and Australind as among the worst hit by WA’s ongoing rental crisis, with a vacancy rate of less than one per cent. Currently in Bunbury, there are only 20 properties available for rent, with the cheapest being a two-bedroom unit unit for $290 a week. Real Estate Institute of WA deputy president Joe White said people looking for rentals could expect to be hard pressed for options for another six to 12 months until houses built through the WA’s HomeBuilder and Building Bonus grants were competed. “I think it will remain tight for a little while longer because of the log-jam in getting these houses completed,” he said. “We are seeing the first of the houses that were built as a function of the subsides completed, so we are seeing an early migration from people who were renting a house are now moving into their own,” “That’s freeing up the rental market a little bit, but the water is frozen in those pipes so solidly, it’s going to take more of those houses to come on-market before the market starts to work a bit better.” “I think it will take six months to a year until we start to see anything change significantly.” While many held out hope open borders would bring an influx of builders to WA, Mr White said that was not at all the case. “It scares the hell out of me because we are not going to see an influx of workers now coming to build houses because we don’t have anywhere to put them, we don’t have any rentals,” he said. “Add in the issues of the floods in the northern New South Wales and Queensland — there will be so much building needed over there, nobody will be coming over here anyway.” “This is a problem Western Australia is going to have to sort out by themself, and while we have this building bubble going on, we just need to practise the maximum amount of patience and the minimum amount of judgment so we can try get houses up as quick as we can.”