Karratha channels Wizard of Oz to fix housing woes

The City of Karratha could subsidise housing developments under a new proposal to solve the booming town's crippling accommodation shortage.

The local government body will host four forums in the next month to spruik undeveloped city-owned land to developers and understand what roadblocks need to be cleared and incentives offered to get new dwellings built.

Those incentives could range from long leases and rate discounts to grants and co-investing in developments.

The policy, briefly named Project Dorothy after The Wizard of Oz’s main character, who ‘dropped a house on a wicked problem’, was on Monday night backed by the City of Karratha council.

City of Karratha Mayor Dan Scott admitted elements of the policy were risky, but the shortage was at a point where the city had to put everything on the table to find a solution.

“We need to figure out what's stopping (developers). Is it the build cost, the development cost, the cost of the land,” he said.

“The (incentives) we want to pursue are ones that don’t cost the ratepayer.

“If it comes down to the crunch … and we do have to use some of that local government money, then obviously we need to mitigate our risks, ensure that we have done everything we can to make sure that is protected, and we also have an exit strategy.

“Our purpose is to enable, not necessarily be an investor.”

Mr Scott said local builders could, at a stretch, complete 20 homes per year, and larger firms had indicated capacity to build apartments in town.

The city land purchased from the state government in 2022 has potential to house 374 dwellings.

The project is the latest attempt by the Pilbara council to address a years-long housing squeeze caused by a concoction of factors, including a $37 billion approved project pipeline, high costs, COVID-19, and fallout from the 2015 mining bust.

Modelling suggests Karratha’s population is expected to grow 30 per cent by 2030, which would leave the town short of 1,200 homes.

Adding to the problem, 70 per cent of the town’s housing stock is owned by resources companies or government agencies, and thus is not turning over on the market.

Efforts in recent years to swell housing availability have seen the City of Karratha put forward the 82-unit Walgu apartments, which is nearing approval, redevelop a block of rundown units, and work with Rio Tinto and Woodside to bring unused company housing into the rental market.

Mr Scott said housing was needed to ensure the transformation of towns through the Pilbara Cities program was not in vain.

“In 2016, the Census data said 64,000 people lived in the Pilbara, in 2021 that population decreased to 59,000,” he said.

“Those 5,000 people that left the Pilbara can be directly linked to an increase in 5,000 FIFO people.

“With this next commodity phase, if we do not act now and we do not get more housing in, the fear is these towns in the Pilbara will look and feel exactly the same in ten years’ time.”

The current situation has some similarity to the mid-2000s when Pilbara towns were experiencing major housing shortages due to the mining boom.

In response to that housing crunch, the Barnett government sunk substantial funds into Karratha’s Warambie Estate ($30.4 million), The Quarter ($66.7 million for residential and commercial buildings) and construction of the twin Pelago apartment towers ($30 million).

The current state government has splashed $500,000 on the unused Rio Tinto and Woodside housing program for refurbishments, $10.5 milliom on an accommodation and training facility in Roebourne, and investments in social and government housing.

Under the new policy the city would seek to work with the state government to unlock Crown land.

The state government’s landholdings in Karratha include the old hospital and high school sites, remaining lots in Madigan West, and the undeveloped suburb of Mulataga, once described by former Pilbara MLA Brendon Grylls as a future “Cottesloe of the north”.

Mr Scott said the city would advocate for the state government to develop headworks for new land at cost to ease the burden on builders.

An existing state government program does offer this for selected projects.

Also on the wishlist, though not part of the housing policy, is a push for the return on Karratha’s $20 billion GDP contribution to be lifted to 1 cent in the dollar, up from 0.0008 cents.

That would boost the city’s coffers by $74 million so it could “solve its own problems”, according to Mr Scott.