Rising regional demand is reshaping Western Australia’s housing landscape, with serious consequences for local workers and communities
Over recent months, I’ve spent more time travelling through regional Western Australia.
Not as a tourist, but as someone who has spent three decades working in property, leadership, and community conversations. What I’m seeing deserves careful attention.
On the surface, it looks like a positive story.
More people are moving to regional WA. Buyers priced out of the metropolitan market. FIFO workers wanting a home base that feels grounded.
Professionals who can now work remotely and are seeking a slower pace of life, more space, and a stronger sense of community.
In many ways, this makes sense. Regional WA offers lifestyle, connection, and until recently relative affordability.
But beneath that surface, a more complex story is unfolding.
The Unintended Consequence
As regional property markets heat up, another issue is rising quietly alongside them: rough sleeping and homelessness in regional towns.
Not in Perth.
Not in capital cities.
But in communities that, until recently, rarely experienced this level of housing stress.
I’ve spoken with local business owners, community leaders, and long-term residents who are watching this unfold in real time.
People who have lived in their towns their entire lives, who work locally, raise families locally, and contribute locally, are now finding themselves priced out of their own communities.
This isn’t due to poor choices or lack of effort.
It’s because the rules have changed.
Regional Prices, Metro Economics
One of the biggest pressures emerging is this: regional property prices are now approaching metropolitan levels.
That’s good news if you already own a home. Rising equity brings security and opportunity.
But for renters and first-home buyers in regional towns, the experience is very different.
The uncomfortable truth is this:
Regional wages have not kept pace with regional property prices.
Small businesses are the backbone of regional communities.
Cafés, trades, retail, tourism, agriculture, and service industries employ the majority of local people.
These businesses cannot afford to pay metropolitan salaries, nor should they be expected to.
Their margins are tighter. Their markets are smaller. Their costs are rising.
Yet they are now competing for housing with buyers whose incomes are not tied to the local economy: FIFO workers, remote professionals, and metro earners whose purchasing power stretches much further in regional markets.
The result is predictable.
Local workers, teachers, hospitality staff, apprentices, young families, are being squeezed out of the very towns that rely on them to function.
When Communities Can’t House Their Own People
At this point, the issue becomes more than a property discussion.
When essential workers can’t afford to live locally, communities fracture.
Businesses struggle to attract and retain staff.
Services become harder to sustain.
Young people are forced to leave.
And in the most distressing cases, people end up sleeping rough, in towns never designed to manage homelessness at scale.
Regional homelessness doesn’t always look the same as metropolitan homelessness, but it is no less real or serious. And once it takes hold, it is extremely difficult to reverse.
This Is Not About Blame
It’s important to be clear: this is not about blaming buyers.
People are making rational decisions for their families and futures.
Remote work is here to stay. Lifestyle migration is real. And regional living can be a wonderful choice.
The challenge is that our housing, planning, and economic systems have not kept pace with the speed of change.
What Can Be Done?
There are no simple fixes, but there are balanced, practical steps we can take if we are willing to think long-term.
First, we must address housing affordability in metropolitan areas.
Many people are moving regional because the city is no longer accessible.
Without meaningful increases in metro supply, through smarter density, faster approvals, and diverse housing options, we will continue exporting housing pressure into regional towns ill-equipped to absorb it.
Second, regional towns need purpose-built affordable housing.
Not luxury developments or speculative investor stock, but housing designed for local workers, teachers, healthcare staff, hospitality workers, apprentices, and young families. Housing that keeps communities functioning, not just markets moving.
Third, we must protect farming and agricultural land.
Regional economies depend on agriculture for employment, exports, and identity.
Limiting farmers ability to farm as they have done, over rezoning and speculative land use can undermine farming viability and drive land prices beyond reach. Protecting farmland is not anti-progress, it is pro-sustainability.
Finally, small businesses need support to survive.
If regional businesses collapse under wage and cost pressures, towns hollow out.
Supporting local enterprise through incentives, infrastructure, and policy settings is not charity, it is economic common sense.
A Call for Balanced Thinking
Western Australia has always been built on resilience, practicality, and fairness.
We can welcome new residents and protect locals.
We can support property growth and housing accessibility.
We can encourage regional living without sacrificing farming and community stability.
But only if we remember this:
Housing is not just an asset class. It is a social foundation.
What I’m seeing in regional WA is a warning light, not yet a crisis.
And warning lights exist so we can act, thoughtfully, early, and together, to ensure regional Western Australia remains not just a place people move to, but a place people can continue to call home.
