From the CEO
From cable cars to construction cost & time blow outs, this week we have seen the debate rage on about ideas to sell our city and to fix the skills shortage. Ironically, today’s unemployment stats have seen WA’s unemployment rate rise against the national trend to 5.1% and we await the State Government’s response as what this means for local labour and the capacity to reskill or upskill the local workforce.
The ongoing and somewhat cyclical conversation around ‘Brand Perth’ saw Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas gather a collective of leaders to brainstorm ideas about how to reinvigorate a city that needs a soul. Unsurprisingly, many of the ideas that emerged are not new. The cable car itself is quite an old idea that has resurfaced. I wonder what has prevented us from identifying and getting our community behind a vision for Perth up until now. Defining and getting people to buy into a vision takes strong leadership and getting on with the job. Let’s see what emerges over the coming months.
Perth home buyers love of the water was highlighted in the latest UDIA Urbis Home Purchaser Sentiment Survey, which offers insight into how 502 people viewed the current market in May 2021 and follows the first edition of the survey being completed for Perth in July 2020. The top 4 suburbs where people want to buy are Como, South Perth, Scarborough and Applecross.
Regardless of whether they want to live by the ocean or the river, the report highlights that 44% of homebuyers are positive about the Perth market despite government stimulus measures ending. To view the full report, click here.
After what has seemed like an inordinate amount of time, WA now has a Community Titles Act that offers fantastic opportunities of structuring strata developments. UDIA WA have organised a free member briefing with Sean Macfarlane and Craig Wallace from Lavan to discuss the impacts and benefits of this new form of land tenure. For more information and to register for this free event, email events@udiawa.com.au.
Finally, there is clearly community concern around how medium density housing has been delivered in the past, with a massive 89% of survey respondents as part of the Medium Density Code consultation saying we need to do better. I implore you to take the time to read the Interim Submission Summary released by DPLH this week, which incorporates UDIA’s feedback on your behalf.
For those of you with children, I hope you enjoy the last couple of days of school holidays. Until next week.
Tanya Steinbeck
UDIA WA CEO
Positivity remains strong among homebuyers in Perth
This week UDIA WA released the latest edition of the UDIA Urbis Home Purchaser Sentiment Survey, which found 44% of buyers were still positive about buying a home, despite the ending of government stimulus measures.
In more positive news for the prospects of the property market in Perth, 69% of respondents think property prices with rise in Perth in the next six months.
The percentage of those who feel positive increased further when only looking at the responses from owner occupiers, with 58% of that segment in a positive state of mind about purchasing Perth property.
The UDIA Urbis Home Purchaser Sentiment Survey (Perth, WA) offers insight into how 502 people aged 21 years and over viewed the current market as of May 2021. This is the second time the survey has been conducted in Perth, with results from this year able to be compared with August 2020 as well as results from around the country.
In a promising turn, those looking to invest were more positive this time around when compared with 2020 survey figures, with the percentage of potential investors positive about purchasing lifting from 38% to 41%.
Enticing investors back into the WA property market is critical to ongoing market growth.
Positive sentiment was comparable across all Capital Cities surveyed with Sydney (45%), Melbourne (44%), Brisbane (40%) all returning very similar percentage of positive sentiment.
In terms of what type of housing respondents wanted to live in, a single home dominated results again in this year’s survey.
75% of respondents said they would prefer to live in a single home, with around 20% of respondents saying they would be looking for a medium or higher density option for their next purchase.
Perth respondents under the age of 24 were most attracted to apartments, with 19% of this age group interested in purchasing an apartment and 22% of those aged over 65 were interested in buying either an apartment or town house (medium density).
The survey also found the locations where people want to live in, with the inner suburb of Como topping the list in terms of where respondents would like to purchase. Como was also top of the list of ‘sticky suburbs’, which are areas where respondents already live and would want to purchase.
The majority of suburbs where respondents would want to buy are in the central Perth area with South Perth, Applecross, North Perth and the Perth CBD all making the top 10.
Hillarys was the furthest suburb away from the CBD within the top 10 that respondents were looking to buy in.
In terms of the sticky suburbs, there was a slightly more spread-out result with Alkimos in Perth’s burgeoning northern corridor and Byford in the south both making the top 10, however North Perth and the Perth CBD, both making appearances in the top 10.
To view further results from the latest HPSS, click here.
Draft Medium Density Update
This week the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage released the Interim Submission Summary following feedback received on the draft Medium Density Code.
The Interim Submission Summary was released following endorsement at the Western Australian Planning Commission meeting 30 June 2021, wherein the WAPC also resolved to endorse the Workshop Stakeholder Engagement Outcomes Report for public release.
Please note that the Interim Submission Summary is intended to provide an interim high-level summary of the feedback received on the draft Medium Density Code with full analysis of the feedback and submissions ongoing, which will involve further engagement and design testing.
UDIA WA has continued to work closely with our members and the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage on the draft code throughout the consultation period and we are pleased to see the Interim Submission Summary released today captures our feedback.
Both documents are available here.
Social and Community Infrastructure on show
Did you catch the latest episode of Home in WA on the weekend? This week’s episode featured the award winning Amberton Beach Coastal Precinct by Stockland as we spoke about the importance of excellent social and community infrastructure.
UDIA WA President Col Dutton and UDIA WA CEO Tanya Steinbeck were both interviewed by host Hans Bruechle for the segment, highlighting the excellent work being done by developers all over Western Australia, further educating the public about the development industry.
Check the episode out here and if you have missed any previous episodes, check out our Youtube channel, here.
Updates to Community Titles & Free Member Briefing
Amendments to Operational Policy 1.1 – Community Schemes and the guidelines were released this week, following the public consultation period, using the feedback provided in the submissions lodged with the Strata Reform Team.
The documents were considered by the WAPC at its meeting on 30 June 2021 and were approved. The documents are now available here including FAQs and links to the community development statement application form.
UDIA WA has welcomed the Community Titles Act coming into effect on June 30 as it offers a valuable alternative for how complex and mixed-use developments can be delivered into the State.
To provide members with an extensive overview of the benefits of Community Titles, UDIA WA will be hosting a free member briefing with Sean Macfarlance, Special Counsel at Lavan and Craig Wallace, partner at Lavan, providing their expert knowledge of Community Titles. Sean was lead advisor in Parliament to the Minister for Lands during debate and passage of the Strata Titles Amendment Bill 2018 and the Community Titles Bill 2018.
Sean and Craig will be covering:
- examples of development sites in WA that leading developers are planning to subdivide using community titles;
- tips on how to overcome current limitations in strata using community titles; and
- the key features in a development site that might make community titles a better option.
For more information and to book your spot at this timely briefing email events@udiawa.com.au.
Enhance your career with UDIA WA
UDIA WA are pleased to announce enrolments for our next intake of the BSB40920 Certificate IV in Project Management Practice, Specialising in Property Development course are now open.
The course teaches the critical skills of project management such as identifying project scope; managing time, cost & quality; contract negotiation; team engagement; stakeholder communication & human resources management.
This course is the only nationally recognised qualification of its kind that teaches the project management competencies unique to the property development industry and the course content has been written by education experts and industry professionals who provide real life relevance and focus on the practical application of knowledge.
This qualification is uniquely designed for those who work, or aspire to work in project roles within property development. The skills and knowledge acquired through this qualification are vitally important for those who work in the property and construction industry such as development managers, construction managers, town planners, architects or engineers.
The qualification is delivered over 18 weeks through a blended method of online self-directed learning and regular tutorials. Upon achieving a competent result for all course units of competency, graduates will attain a BSB40920 Certificate IV in Project Management Practice, Specialising in Property Development issued by our RTO, McMillan.
UDIA WA members can enrol by either completing and returning the application form to pd@udiasnw.com.au, or by registering online here and including discount code UDIAWA at the payment page.
For more information see here.
Unemployment rises in WA
Following consecutive months of drops, Western Australia’s unemployment rate rose sharply in June from 4.6% to 5.1% to sit above the national rate, which continued to fall to sit at its lowest level since December 2010 at 4.9%.
It was the eighth consecutive monthly fall in the national rate, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, however the June data was recorded before the current NSW lockdown came into effect.
Despite WA’s rising unemployment rate, WA has the highest participation rate (the number of people actively looking for work or currently employed) of all the States with only the Northern Territory and the ACT recorded higher participation rates.
The state with the lowest unemployment rate is Victoria, at 4.4%, followed by WA, NSW and Queensland on 5.1%.
Winner Announced
UDIA WA is delighted to announce BN Investments were the lucky winner of our table of 10 at an upcoming industry luncheon following our Early Bird Membership draw.
BN Investments were selected at random from those companies that paid their membership invoice in full by 30 June and we look forward to welcoming their table at one of our lunches, including our August lunch that will be Thinking Outside the Bureaucracy Box.
Join us on the last day of consultation for Phase 2 of Planning Reform in Western Australia as we will take a deep dive into the lessons & opportunities experienced in delivering world-class communities in Australia from a developer and government perspective.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from some of the best on navigating complexity in planning & infrastructure as we take the next step towards a better bureaucracy in WA.
More information and register here.
McGowan Government delivers new small business boost
Small businesses throughout Western Australia will soon be able to apply for a $3,000 grant to provide cash flow support to assist with some of the costs incurred as a direct result of the recent four-day lockdown.
A new round of the Small Business Lockdown Assistance Grants program is being opened to provide some support to small businesses that incurred direct costs or lost more than 30% of revenues due to the restrictions.
The one-off grants are for the lockdown between June 29, 2021 and July 2, 2021 and the associated restriction period from July 3, 2021 to July 6, 2021. The program is also available to eligible small businesses in regional Western Australia that were most likely to have been impacted during this period.
Small businesses can apply from July 19 online at https://www.smallbusiness.wa.gov.au with grant payments expected to commence by the end of the month.
New opportunity at UDIA
There is an opportunity to join the team at UDIA WA in the role of Policy Officer.
The role is responsible for supporting the Director of Policy and Research in achieving the objectives of the Institute’s policy and research agenda, and the coordination of the EnviroDevelopment program in Western Australia.
For more information, visit the job advert here.
Safe path network on track for Broome community
Construction has recently finished on Stage 1 of the Conti Foreshore shared path project providing a shared path along one of Broome’s most famous foreshores.
The Shire of Broome secured $308,035 through the Western Australian Bicycle Network (WABN) Grants Program and matched the funds to deliver 1.3 kilometres of safe shared path from Town Beach to Carnarvon Street near Matso’s Brewery.
The recently completed Stage 1 works have resulted in the construction of a 422-metre-long, 3-metre-wide path from Town Beach to Guy Street.
Stage 2 will be constructed in 2021-22, adding a further 900 metres of path along Conti Foreshore from Guy Street to Matso’s Brewery.
The WABN Grants Program assists local governments with the planning, design, construction and activation of bicycle infrastructure, with $7.6 million in grants allocated to 51 local governments in the latest round of funding announced in January 2021.
The Conti Foreshore shared path project is one of 59 bicycle infrastructure projects delivered through the WABN Grants Program in 2020-21.