Broome council to develop affordability plan to tackle housing crisis

Broome council will develop a new housing affordability plan to develop vacant land across the townsite in an effort to tackle the housing crisis. The plan will offer concept master planning for up to 12 underdeveloped sites across Broome identified by a combination of officer investigations and a public expression of interest process. It comes after Broome’s median average rent reached $1150 per week in May with rental vacancy reaching near 0 per cent. Undeveloped and underdeveloped land was identified as one of primary contributors to the housing crisis, according to shire documents. High construction costs and a lack of incentives to build or buy instead of rent were also identified as major contributors. Broome shire president Chris Mitchell said the strategy’s main goal was to encourage landowners to develop their undeveloped properties. “We’re looking at undeveloped land or underdeveloped land and then talking with those landowners making them aware they could be building on their land and it doesn’t have to be a single house, it can be a duplex or a triplex unit or something else,” he said. “We’re also discussing issues with the State Government such as Government Regional Office Housing. At the moment the Government is renting out homes that are in the private market, which has increased our rent costs considerably. “So we’re saying to Government, we need more houses built, especially State housing and GROH housing to cater to their needs so we can create affordable housing for everyone else.“ The plan will also update the shire’s 2009 Local Housing Strategy, survey the demand for different housing densities and look into other factors affecting the housing supply such as Government Regional Officer Housing, stamp duty, insurance rates and fringe benefit tax rates. The plan will cost $98,500 in Federal funding which the shire acquired through a submission process in July.