“Rents are skyrocketing, and we know affordable suburbs are disappearing at an alarming rate,” Glasson said.
“The numbers speak for themselves.
“From our research, we know the average WA household is paying close to an additional $20,000 extra per year since 2021.
“What was once a housing crisis has now become an economic one.”
Glasson warned of the flow-on effect when households were forced to spend more of their income just to keep a roof over their heads.
“We all need to be concerned that the rapid increases in housing costs/collapse of affordability we are experiencing is happening during a time of unprecedented spending on housing by the state government,” he said.
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“Despite this spending, too many Western Australians are being dragged into hardship. Bold and urgent measures are required now if we are to get out of this mess.”
Make Renting Fair WA – a coalition of peak bodies, service providers and unions – has urged the introduction of a rent stabilisation mechanism that capped rent increases to either the consumer price index or a prescribed formula.
It also called for an increase in the length of notice periods for rent increases; for landlords to prove why higher rents were justified; and for an end to “no-grounds” evictions.
“The WA government began consulting on rent stabilisation more than five years ago,” Glasson said.
“While reforms in 2024 reduced the frequency of rent increases from six months to annually, they didn’t address the core issue: the size of those increases.
“Without limits, rents have continued to soar, pushing families into debt and homelessness.”
Nationally, rents rose 1.3 per cent over the December quarter and 5.2 per cent over the year. The median rent in Sydney was $817 a week, while the cheapest capital to rent in was Hobart, at $601.
Dalkeith was the most expensive Perth suburb with a median weekly rent of $1577, while the most affordable suburb was Orelia, in the City of Kwinana, with a median rent of $473 a week.
