Bolstering the WA economy

It was welcome news a week ago when the State Government finalised the arrangements with the Federal Government’s HomeBuilder grant. The policy has been tweaked from its original announcement to provide greater certainty to off-the-plan apartment purchasers.

The grant provides $25,000 for purchasers who meet the criteria when they purchase an apartment as their principal place of residence costing $750,000 or less, and will commence construction within three months of the date the contract is signed or if construction commenced on or after June 4, 2020.

The definition of construction commencement has been clarified so this important hurdle is clearly understood. The HomeBuilder grant applies to contracts signed up to and including December 31, 2020. The grant is paid once the purchaser has settled on the apartment.

Along with the State Government stamp duty rebate capped at $50,000 for off-the-plan contracts signed before construction commences, and capped at $25,000 if construction has already commenced, the level of incentives is compelling. To sum it up, if you purchase an off-the-plan apartment for $750,000 and meet all the criteria, the government assistance could amount to more than $47,000.

This will likely keep momentum in the Perth market for the rest of the year. From there, the COVID-19 situation will define how quickly the normal market driver of population growth returns to normal. It is astounding to consider there are now only about 500 people a week flying into Perth from overseas and a number of these are ultimately travelling onto the eastern states. Once we hopefully regain the level of international immigration that was beginning to underpin a market recovery earlier in the year, it will provide the ongoing confidence needed tied to increased demand.

Keeping mining jobs in Western Australia

With the COVID-19 restrictions shining a light on the 6000 fly-in, fly-out mining workers travelling regularly from the eastern states, the extent of jobs being siphoned out of the state was alarming. It represents a small country town or a large suburb of people with high salaries that are not contributing to our community.

It has been positive to see Premier Mark McGowan push back on the big miners who no doubt sold the benefits of more jobs for the WA economy when their large-scale projects were approved.

Providing incentives for these workers to make the shift to WA should be encouraged but their employers should also be held accountable to the promises made on the wider economic benefits that come from their large-scale investments.

Our economy is directly shaped by the mining industry and they need to acknowledge that the lows, as well as the highs caused by the fluctuations in resource investment, are particularly shared by everyone in WA. For that alone, the mining companies should focus on employing Western Australians, as that is the best investment they can provide to our community.