Western Australia has claimed the top position on the HIA Housing Scorecard for the first time since 2014, marking a major shift in the national building landscape and a turnaround few would have predicted during the state’s mining downturn.
The latest scorecard shows WA now leads the country across key measures of residential construction, renovations, lending activity and population trends, pushing past both South Australia and Queensland in the past year.
HIA’s Housing Scorecard ranks each state and territory by comparing current activity with long-term averages.
WA’s performance reflects strong population growth and a building industry that has been steadily rebuilding its capacity since 2019.
Detached home building is now among the strongest in the country, large-scale renovations are lifting, and multi-unit construction—once at historical lows—has bounced back with support from both investors and non–first home buyers.
“Today’s HIA Housing Scorecard recognises the incredible effort of the industry over the past four years to deliver homes for Western Australian families,” said HIA WA Executive Director Michael McGowan.
“It shows that we’re back on our feet, supplying twice the number of homes compared to pre-pandemic levels.”
McGowan highlighted how quickly the industry has scaled up to meet demand.
“We’ve doubled housing volumes since 2020, increased our trade workforce by 25% since 2022, and embraced innovative building methodologies that will shape the next five years of growth,” he said.
He also credited close alignment between government and industry.
“This achievement reflects the State Government’s partnership with industry, through planning reform, apprentice incentives, skilled migration support, delaying NCC 2022 adoption, and introducing new building methods in social housing programs.”
Despite WA’s top ranking, Mr McGowan stressed that the momentum now needs to be maintained.
“This doesn’t mean the hard work stops. We need to keep improving, innovating, and delivering more homes for WA families,” he said.
He noted ongoing workforce pressures and urged new entrants to consider building trades.
“We need to continue to attract skilled workers to the industry, and there is no better time to start looking at an apprenticeship. Thousands of school leavers will see today’s announcement, and we encourage them to take up a trade with such a positive outlook.”
Mr McGowan also called for faster federal processing of skilled migration visas.
“We need the Federal Government to prioritise visa applications for skilled workers in WA that are currently caught up in the volume of overall visa applications. We need these skilled migrants, and we need them here now.”
On infrastructure, he said delays remain a risk to both infill and Greenfields growth.
“Infrastructure planning and investment priorities need to continue to be the highest level of priority for the Government. Infill and Greenfields activity will be strangled if we don’t have the best delivery system in the country, this includes approvals, power, water and sewer.”
The HIA Housing Scorecard assesses activity across detached home building, multi-unit construction, renovation work, lending trends and migration flows.
WA’s rise to the number one position signals a sector that has rebuilt its capacity and is well placed for the next phase of growth.
