Western Australia’s population continues to grow, cementing Perth as attractive destination

Western Australia’s population is continuing to grow faster than anywhere else in the country, cementing Perth’s reputation as an attractive destination even with the rising cost of living. For nearly two years, the State has recorded Australia’s fastest population growth. New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday confirmed the trend, showing WA’s population grew 2.8 per cent in the year to June to nearly 2.97 million. But it is widely expected WA has already passed the 3 million mark and official figures next year will confirm that. Overseas migration was the major driver of the State’s population increase but WA and Queensland are picking up residents at the expense of all other States and territories while Victoria was flat. WA also boasted the lowest unemployment rate of all the States, falling 0.8 percentage points in November to just 3.3 per cent. Premier Roger Cook lauded the “extraordinary” set of numbers, saying the economy “continues to go from strength to strength”. “It’s a sign of just how strong our economy is motoring along. It now means that since March 2017 we have added over 330,0000 jobs . . . that is 1.63 million Western Australians now employed,” he said. Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA chief economist Aaron Morey said there it showed there was “significant thirst and demand” for the State’s commodities. “It plays right into those big global shifts we’re seeing play out across the world, principally the transition to a lower carbon economy but also the rise in geopolitical tensions,” he said. “There is great, great demand for workers which is really underpinning confidence at the moment. Of course the cost of living is much higher, the cost of doing business is much higher but a tight jobs market really does put a floor under confidence and it’ll be a good support for the economy heading into the Christmas period.” Treasurer Rita Saffioti said the “incredible” numbers highlighted how important WA is to the rest of the nation. “There’s now more West Aussies in work than ever and we will continue to focus our attention on growing and diversifying the economy and creating even more jobs,” she said. There were 19,059 jobs advertised on seek.com.au on Thursday, with trades overtaking mining as the category in most demand of workers as the housing construction sector struggles to keep up. Economists say the hot jobs market is adding fuel to Perth’s population boom. As well as 81,307 arrivals from overseas, WA was the only State that recorded net interstate migration with 36,205 people moving west across the Nullabor and only 26,463 heading East. Mr Morey said that while the cost of living in Perth is increasing, the city remains more attractive than Sydney. More than 30,000 people moved out of the harbour city in the year to June. “What we find with interstate migration patterns is that they are principally driven by economic job opportunities, but cost of living is a really important factor as well,” Mr Morey said. “When you look at WA’s housing market compared to other States, we are objectively much more affordable despite the recent price rises. “There’s been some correction and we have had higher rates of growth than other States but we still have a fair bit of catch up there and it is absolutely the case that we are, in addition to being a place of jobs growth, we are also a place of more affordable living.” Demand for workers is adding to pressure on Perth’s housing supply, but also making it harder to build more homes due to a shortage of key tradespeople. “There is no reprieve in sight for housing demand across Perth and Western Australia,” Property Council WA Executive Director Nicola Brischetto said. “For us to build our fair share of the Federal Government’s National Housing Accord 1.2 million new homes target we’ll need to construct 130,000 of them by mid-2029 or 26,000 each year. “Last financial year, only 17,700 homes were built across the State.” But Ms Saffioti said housing approvals have grown by almost 50 per cent in the past year, indicating the pace is picking up. “We’re seeing some really strong signs in the housing market,” she said. Population pressures will revive the political debate over Australia and Perth’s growing pains, a month after a report by FTI Consulting warned that Perth must “build out or build up” to cope. The report warned that Perth’s low rate of building approvals was not keeping pace with the influx of new residents and called for more urgent urban infill. “It’s much cheaper for society as a whole to deliver these additional dwellings in existing built up areas,” FTI Managing Director Lars Rognlien said. “Bringing productivity benefits from having workers and businesses located in close proximity as well as avoiding many of the costs that are associated with urban sprawl. “If the city can increase the share of dwellings . . . if that could double from 7 to 15 per cent we estimate that the societal benefits could be around a $1.5 billion over a 30 year period.” By contrast, the Property Council warned that the rate of medium and high density projects being completed had collapsed. “We need to quickly reverse this trend if we’re going to accommodate WA’s projected population growth,” Ms Brischetto said. “There are currently 10,000 planned apartments with development approvals that are in limbo across Western Australia.” Australian National University demography Liz Allen said both State and Federal Governments have “woefully underfunded” vital infrastructure for decades. “This is a generational problem in the making by way of housing affordability, economic insecurity, gender inequality,” she said. Dr Allen said a political debate over migration levels was inevitable as a result. “We’ve seen politicians hit that population panic button,” she said. “Don’t panic is what I would say. Don’t panic, the figures will plateau, they’ll level out over time.”