UDIA in Action
UDIA in WA has been collaborating this week with our counterparts across the country to campaign against the raft of new property related taxes flagged by the Victorian Government in their latest Budget.
The new and increased taxes will substantially increase the cost of acquiring and holding land, developing new homes and the ultimate price paid by homebuyers in Victoria and it is something we do not want to see happen in Western Australia. Read more below.
This week UDIA WA CEO Tanya Steinbeck also attended a Medium Density Advisory Group meeting to further progress this all-important topic for the future of Perth’s housing developments. UDIA WA Director Policy and Research Chris Green participated in a Community and Customer Reference Group with Western Power to assist with their fifth Access Arrangement (AA5) submission.
On Saturday, the latest edition of the Land Report in The West Australian highlighted what is happening in the land market around Perth. This coming Saturday, our new partnership with Channel 7’s Home in WA is set to kick off with the first episode of this season going to air at 5.30pm. The program will showcase some of the fantastic developments that our members are working on and provide the community with insight into the industry and the positive contribution we make to WA.
Last Friday our 2021 Golf Classic was held at Joondalup Resort with an impressive turn out making it another day to remember on the fairways and greens. We thank all those who attended and to see images from the day, click here.
Following another busy week for the UDIA team, we are looking forward to hearing about the role East Perth is set to play in the evolution of our City as a place of choice to live, work and invest at our Outlook event this evening. We will see many of you there!
Victoria’s New Housing Taxes
UDIA National is leading the advocacy campaign against the raft of new taxes proposed by the Victorian Government that will stall projects and hurt homebuyers in Victoria.
The Victorian Government last week announced three new or increased taxes:
- A lift in stamp duty from 5.5% to 6.5% for property transactions with a dutiable value over $2 million;
- Increases in the land tax rates for holdings valued above $1.8 million, with an additional increase for holdings valued at over $3 million; and
- A new rezoning tax with a tax rate of 62.5% for value uplifts between $100,001 and $500,000 and 50% for the value of any uplift above $500,000.
These new and increased taxes will substantially increase the cost of acquiring and holding land, developing new homes and the ultimate price paid by homebuyers.
The new rezoning tax in particular will stifle projects – making it harder to get complex sites off the ground, ruin project feasibilities and add to the cost of the reduced number of homes that are built.
UDIA’s Victorian Division has already been a vocal critic of the changes, undertaking wide-ranging media and advocacy efforts to make the case against the changes.
UDIA National President Simon Basheer said as well as the threat to the Victorian economy, there was a strong risk of precedent creep and that other states will be tempted to follow suit.
“We’ve seen the Federal Government do a lot of heavy lifting to support homebuyers and housing construction via HomeBuilder – which held the Australian economy afloat during COVID-19,” Mr Basheer said.
“The last thing we need is the threat of an arms race among the states to impose new taxes that flow onto homebuyers and crush the surge in construction activity underway across the nation.”
Mr Basheer said in addition to the range of advocacy efforts already being undertaken by our Victorian Division, UDIA National will be:
- Joining the media fight against the new changes, with a media release already issued in condemnation of the changes
- Using social media to highlight the effects of the proposed new or increased taxes
- Urging other state governments around the nation to commit to not repeating the Victorian example of applying new or increased taxes
- Entering a dialogue with the Federal Government on how the action of the states runs counter to their efforts to support housing supply and home ownership.
Latest land sales figures reflect strong market
Despite the winding up of State and Federal Government stimulus measures, Perth land sales in the March 2021 quarter increased by nearly 5% on the previous quarter.
This is just one of the key takeaways from the latest edition of UDIA WA’s Urban Development Index (UDI) which paints a relatively strong picture of the greenfield market in Western Australia currently.
Over the past year nearly 10,500 lots have been sold, which is an impressive 92% higher than the number of lots sold the year before. Within this there were 1,927 sold in the March 2021 quarter, 4.7% higher than the number sold in December 2020 quarter and over 30% more than March 2020 quarter.
The average size of lots sold also increased in the most recent quarter with the 385sqm recorded, just shy of the 391sqm 5-year peak recorded in the final quarter of 2019.
Added to the increase in sales, the value of new land in Perth remained stable in the March quarter, with the average price of new lots increasing just 1% over the quarter and 6.7% over the year.
In terms of forward demand, the UDI highlights a continued uplift in construction activity with the number of lots under construction in the next 12 months 46.7% higher compared to the same quarter last year.
For a full overview including a breakdown in the performance of the key growth corridors in Perth, click here.
Tune in on Saturday!
UDIA WA are excited to announce the first episode in our new Media Partnership with Home in WA is set to air on Saturday 22 May at 5.30pm.
As part of our partnership, UDIA WA has the opportunity to showcase the fantastic work the urban development industry does in creating new and regenerating existing communities to a wide audience on Channel 7.
The program allows us to highlight the importance of the industry to the broader economy and jobs growth and foster greater engagement with residents and new home buyers.
As part of the media partnership Ron (DINGO) Reddingius is pleased to offer all UDIA WA members a very special discount rate for video content on the 2021 TV series.
If you would like to showcase your company, business, project or estate on the CH7 & GWN7 TV series, state-wide, give ‘Dingo’ a call on 0417279103 or email him on dingoistalent@bigpond.com
Land Report
Last weekend the latest edition of UDIA WA’s Land Report was published in The West Australian.
The Land Report is a comprehensive overview of lot sale activity in Perth and includes a variety of articles highlighting key issues impacting the development industry.
Utilising data from UDIA WA’s Urban Development Index, the latest issue of the Land Report can be found here.
New Built Form dates
Due to high demand, additional course dates have been added for our Built Form Development Course.
If you are interested in the built form environment and looking to upskill and grow your knowledge base, the two-day UDIA WA Built Form Development course is ideal for you.
Designed and delivered by industry professional Danielle Davison, this course teaches the practical, comprehensive, and highly relevant content associated with the residential built form industry!
Attendance to this course attracts 7 REBA CPD points if applicable.
With only 20 places available per course, it is time to book now and secure your place for either the July or September intake, here.
Unemployment rate continues to fall
The latest statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveals the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for Australia fell by 0.2 percentage points to 5.5% between March and April 2021.
The ABS said this was the sixth consecutive fall in the unemployment rate, down from 6.9% in October 2020, with this latest reduction happening despite the JobKeeper wage subsidy finishing at the end of March 2021.
Western Australia continued its strong employment trend by recording the lowest unemployment rate of all States at just 4.9%, 0.6 percentage points lower than next best States Victoria and NSW at 5.5%.
WA also recorded the strongest participation rate of all States at 68%, however this was down by 0.8% thanks to the loss of 14,400 WA jobs in April, almost all of them part-time, and 16,700 people dropping out of the labour force altogether.
According to the stats 72,300 West Australians were unemployed and actively looking for work in April, which was the fewest since mid-2015 and compares to 121,000 during the height of the coronavirus pandemic last June.
Western Power update
As you may have seen recently in the media, negotiations between Western Power and the Communications, Electrical and Plumbers Union (CEPU) have not progressed resulting in Western Power employees covered by the CEPU enterprise agreement undertaking a two-day strike across the whole of the Western Power network area on Thursday and Friday (20-21 May 2021).
As a result, Western Power have cancelled all scheduled maintenance work with customers, including planned outages, for these two days and have notified impacted customers. This strike may also affect parts of the broader community if there are unplanned outages, although the CEPU has confirmed that urgent repairs will be completed if there’s a threat to life.
The Western Power customer service centre will be unaffected by industrial action and the community are encouraged to keep reporting any faults, shocks and tingles through the 13 13 51 number 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Unplanned outages should also be reported via the same number if there are problems created by poor weather conditions or other issues on the network.
For further information regarding the work stoppage, click here for a message from Western Power CEO ED Kalajzic.
Australian Urban Design Research Centre workshops
The Australian Urban Design Research Centre (AUDRC) recently announced it will be delivering a program of CPD workshops for professional in related fields. These workshops focus on sustainability, scenario planning, multifunctional street design, and 3D visualisation skills – amongst others.
For more information on any of these courses, click here.
RBA minutes
This week saw the release of the minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s monthly monetary policy meeting wherein the board reaffirmed the existing policy settings.
To read the minutes in full, click here.
Irrigation training for local councils
This week Water Minister Dave Kelly launched a new waterwise irrigation training program for Waterwise councils.
The program is a new initiative being introduced to encourage local governments to achieve and retain Gold endorsement under the existing Waterwise Council Program.
The Waterwise Councils irrigation training program will equip local government staff with the skills and knowledge to ensure best practice in efficient water use, through improved irrigation design, installation and maintenance.
The cost of the program will be fully subsidised for participating local government parks and irrigation staff and will initially run each year for the next three years.
To be eligible for access to the training, a local government must be endorsed or working towards achieving Gold status in the Waterwise Council Program.
The Waterwise Councils irrigation training program contributes to the delivery of the Waterwise Perth Action Plan through key action items that aim to extend and enhance the Waterwise Council Program and recognise 100 per cent of metropolitan councils as Gold by 2030.
Become a key player in sustainable development
Register to be part of the upcoming EnviroDevelopment Professional Training to enhance your company’s skillset and become a key player in sustainable development.
The next intake of the course takes place on June 17 as a 3-hour webinar that is a direct steppingstone to becoming a certified EnviroDevelopment Professional (EDP).
The course offers the opportunity to gain knowledge of the EnviroDevelopment program and stay in touch with latest trends and technologies in green communities across Australia.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to become an EDP. For more information, click here.
PD Course
The UDIA WA Professional Development Course continued this week with module 5 taking place on Monday 17 May. The program is specifically designed for the Western Australian context and introduces participants to the various areas of knowledge required to operate effectively in our local residential development industry.
Participants will learn to define and manage projects, while becoming familiar with terminology from the broad range of disciplines and concepts involved in property development.
The remaining module in the current intake takes place on Monday May 24 – Module 6: Practical Application to officially round off the April intake.
While this intake has come to a close, there is the option to enrol for the September intake for either the full course or for any of the individual modules, however spaces are limited.
For more information, click here or email events@udiawa.com.au to secure your place for the next intake.