Government’s land agency needs complete renovation, McCourt

Author: John McCourt
Published on: 25-August-2008

Nationals candidate for the Kimberley John McCourt says land and housing affordability is on everyone’s lips this election – and for good reason.

Media Contact: John McCourt 0429 946 777

The WA Nationals are calling for a comprehensive review into how the State Government prepares and releases land for housing.

Mr McCourt says a careful look at how the Government’s land development agency, Landcorp, has approached the housing shortage would make one’s blood boil.

“It’s an old saying but it’s like putting Dracula in charge of the blood bank.”

The release of land in Broome – for example – is a story of financial opportunism when the Government agency should be helping, not hindering. Mr McCourt says housing lots prepared and auctioned by Landcorp are fetching in excess of $300,000.

“However, I am told it costs Landcorp an average of $140,000 to get them to auction. That’s a pretty hefty profit for what is supposed to be a Government helping the Aussie battler.

With the cost of around $300,000 for just the land and with current building costs coming in at $2800 to $3000 per square metre, that would mean a couple would need to fork out up to $800,000 for a land/house package.

When you consider you’d have to add extra for fencing, gardening and the like, it’s easy to understand it would not be affordable to most people.

“If the Carpenter Government was serious about providing more land it should do just that. I know that Landcorp sits on releasing extra land because by doing that, the price of existing or planned releases goes up to meet the obvious increase in demand,” Mr McCourt said.

What we need is a comprehensive review of how Landcorp operates. It is supposed to provide the environment for residential development – not act as developer itself.