Sandra Brewer, Western Australia Executive Director of the Property Council of Australia, sat down recently with WA Premier Mark McGowan to discuss WA's ability to recover from the current pandemic.
Premier Mark McGowan made the point that the wide scale recovery in WA at this point, was largely due to the Government’s hard border stance. With a spike in new house-and-land contracts, growing consumer confidence and strong retail sales, WA has managed to turn things around. When questioned on the hard border, the Premier indicated that he is unlikely to revisit this decision, unless of course a vaccine is found.
At the event I conveyed that a crucial element of WA’s economic recovery will be to leverage the property industry. Latest Property Council data reveals that property contributes $24.2bn to GSP in direct activity and employed 150,000 FTE jobs.
Approximately 23% of wages to WA workers is generated by the property sector.
The property sector needs to grow in order to attract people to move to WA, and stimulate demand that will kick-start new projects.
A prolonged handbrake on overseas and interstate travel will limit the states ability to start job-creating projects. Finding a way to permit permanent or temporary access for students and skilled workers will build confidence across the community and leverage the property industry to support Western Australia’s recovery.
