The weekly rental price in a West Australian town has increased by almost 50 per cent in 12 months as the housing crisis continues to worsen.
In recent years the towns of Broome and Kununurra have witnessed substantial shortages in housing stock and increasing rents and some families have been forced to leave to avoid homelessness.
The latest statistics released by the Real Estate Institute of WA (REIWA) continue this trend and offer bleak reading for Kimberley renters.
Kununurra recorded a staggering weekly rent price growth of 47.7 per cent in the last year.
Its median rental price is $635 per week — the highest percentage increase of any regional WA town.
A similar surge was observed in Broome, where the price increased by 37.7 per cent over the last 12 months.
The town's median weekly rental price is now $895.
Regional migration
REIWA president Joe White said rental shortages and a spike in people moving to the Kimberley were driving prices up.
"There has been a move to the regions because of the strength of the economy," he said.
"The biggest issue is we just don't have enough housing."
Ray White property management team leader for Broome and Derby Lara Blunt agreed with Mr White's assertion and said some properties were leased before they even went to market.
"I think it's a symbol of the supply and demand of properties that are available — so not a lot of vacancies pushes the demand up or increases the rent," she said.
Sale prices have also increased — in Broome the median price rose by 7.3 per cent over the last year to $650,000 and Kununurra has seen an 8 per cent rise to $405,000.
Mr White said wages and population growth were the key drivers affecting median house prices.
"The most concerning of all is, not enough social housing means that those that have hit the lowest ever poverty and despair can be made homeless, so we do need that supply liberalised," he said.
Investors returning
Mr White said the only solution to the rental crisis was a greater supply of properties.
There are less than 7,000 listed in WA, where 12-14,000 used to be considered normal.
"Unless we can attract investors and get people investing in new houses, after the ones that are currently under construction have completed, the relief that we see could prove to be a dead cat bounce," Mr White said.
Ray White Broome sales consultant Giles Tipping said the building industry had experienced delays and increased construction costs, but investors were starting to return to the market.
"We're getting a lot of investors now calling in from over east, where it was a very hot market over there, which is now cooling a bit," he said.
"They are looking at expanding over into WA, which I think will probably be good for families and tenants."
Mr White said he expected the trend of rising prices to continue, as demand to live in regional WA increased.
"For the state I think it's nice to see more population centred around where the wealth is actually created, whether that be agriculture, whether it be mining, rather than just where it's distributed, which is typically Perth," he said.
