Who will invest in Rental Housing in the future?

25th July 2022

According to the census data recently released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2021 there were 263,826 rented properties in Western Australia, which represented 27.3% of all dwellings in the state.

And according to the Shelter WA website, of these 42,661 in 2020-21 were public or community housing stock, or 16% of the total rental market.

This total number of social housing units has actually dropped from 44,087 in 2016-17, which means the McGowan Government has seen a cut back of 1,426 during its time in office so far. 

What this means is that 84% of rental accommodation in WA are owner by private investors.

In the 2016 census there were 245,705 (28.3%) rented dwellings, and in the 2011 census the number was 231,824 (29.2%).

So over the last ten years the rental housing stocks rose by 32,002 units or 13.8%.

Over the same period the state’s population went up from 2.239 million to 2.660 million or 19%.