Kim Macdonald: The $105 million luxury skyscraper set for social housing is bang for our buck

There is more in common between Wandana flats in Subiaco and the CBD’s Fraser Suites than meets the eye.

While one is a fairly shabby 50s-built block of flats and the other is a luxury skyscraper, both broke the mould for social housing accommodation in their time.

Wandana, built in response to the post-war housing crisis, was Perth’s — and potentially Australia’s — first social housing high rise.

It sparked a mass of protest, with fears it would become Perth’s version of London’s post-war slums. Fraser Suites takes the notion of social housing high rise to a new level, with the government homes to be spread across 19 floors, alongside affordable housing for Perth’s working poor.

Despite its luxurious nature, it will no doubt draw complaints about housing so many of Perth’s vulnerable people at one address.

Granted, it does heighten the potential for problems, adding a burden to a city that is already struggling with anti-social behaviour.

But in my view, the $105 million tower is taxpayer money well spent, and a sign the State Government is finally putting a bit of grunt and commercial nous into addressing the housing crisis.

While the State Government regularly trots out its well-known line about pulling every lever in the housing crisis, and the amount of money it has poured into the problem is phenomenal, the only measure of success is determined by the social housing wait list.

And it has failed to bring it down, with 22,315 current applications, sometimes representing multiple people.

Post-war governments managed to reduce wait lists by making housing a key focus. It built 41 per cent of all residences constructed in WA between 1945 and 1956 through various schemes under the State Housing Commission.

In the six years to 1953, WA’s total housing stock increased 25 per cent, beating population growth by one per cent.

In recent years, the State Government has overseen a massive drop in Perth’s housing stock relative to population growth, all while absorbing vast masses of tradies for its Metronet projects.

The Fraser Suites project is good value for money for taxpayers , with each apartment an average $450,000 for an average 65sqm of space.

Development costs from scratch would be at least $650,000. It’s a win for Perth.