Broome locals camp overnight to secure land in limited market

ABC NEWS (Australia)

People have camped out overnight at a real estate agent's office in Broome, in the hopes of securing a block of land. The unusual scenes have highlighted the deep need for more residential housing in the area, which locals say is limited and expensive.

Transcript

00:00It just goes to show the housing crisis in Broome. It is happening virtually across the

00:08state but we're talking about Broome. Seven lots were released and there's a significant

00:14shortage of land available for first home buyers or people that want to buy and live

00:20in Broome. So we're lobbying and advocating to the state and federal governments for further

00:27funding and further land release. Development WA, the state government's land arm, has plenty

00:34of land available but it's not ready to be released so we're lobbying to say don't just

00:40release seven lots, release 50 lots or something like that because there is a severe shortage

00:45of residential lots to purchase and build a home on.

00:49Yeah and so how many lots of land are actually part of this particular estate?

00:55There's substantial lots, I'd have to check and see how many lots there are over the whole

01:02remaining estate but I know it's something probably around a thousand or more and there's

01:09other lots available through the NBY Indigenous land agreement so they've got residential lots

01:18they could probably release as well but we're talking development WA and just saying we need bigger

01:27estates released at once rather than a piecemeal effort.

01:31Yeah and so are these other blocks already kind of got road connections and sewage connections?

01:37No, no the other land available hasn't so they're just doing sections at a time and then releasing

01:46them as soon as all the road works and public works are in place.

01:52Yeah considering the demand for this and the urgency of demand, do you think it could be

01:59being done a lot quicker than it is?

02:03Oh for sure. We've been lobbying the state. There's a significant shortage of grow homes,

02:10which are government employee homes and also social houses and what's been happening is the

02:16government's been leasing our residential market available housing rather than building new homes

02:25homes for their employees and not touching the residential market so people from all your small

02:31businesses and other places can come in and buy a house and land package and live here affordably

02:38and that's the other issue is the affordability as well.

02:41Yeah does it does it seem kind of perplexing to you that we hear so much about how important

02:49an issue this is and yet more isn't being done?

02:55Yeah it's one of those things like we're constantly advising the government that you know rents up

03:03here are about $1,300 a week. They shouldn't be that high that's just ludicrous so a young family

03:11can't afford to live here because it's just too expensive. If the government built more government

03:16employee homes and left our private market alone it wouldn't push those rents up through the roof so

03:22we're virtually just saying we need more land released and we need it now and more affordable.

03:30And there is plenty of state government land around Broome that can be opened up?

03:34Well there is it comes under it's owned by the state government but it's managed by Development WA so they do the

03:45the facts and figures and financial requirements and release the land when they think it's opportune but

03:52we're really pushing to say that we need more released at once rather than over you know a few years

03:59there's about a 400 to 500 housing shortage in Broome at the moment.

04:06And how do you feel about investors getting on this who might own other property rather than people

04:11just wanting to build a place where they can live?

04:16That's another issue in itself. We really prefer people coming in and buying to live

04:23in our town but unfortunately there's a lot of people out there who still can't afford the cost of

04:29a house so you're looking probably 200 to 300 thousand dollars just for the land and then you're

04:35probably looking at another four or five hundred thousand dollars to build a house on. That's quite

04:39substantial for a first home buyer so an investor can afford to come in and build all that and then

04:48rent it out but we need those rents to be more affordable but we would prefer to see owner

04:55occupiers than investors but you know we are trying to get investors to build lifestyle villages for our

05:02senior residents and things like that so there's opportunity for investors anyway but we really want

05:09to see land that's affordable and releasable now for first-time buyers or just the local businesses.

05:18Chris despite the fact that there's this pressure with housing in the area do you reckon Broome's still

05:24a pretty sweet place to live? Oh tops yeah for sure yeah we welcome anyone any day it's our tropical

05:35season at the moment so plenty of mangoes. Good stuff okay Chris really good to have a chat to you and

05:42yeah good luck with trying to open up more land up there so people can afford a home. Thanks a lot Joe.

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