Property Council WA has harnessed the intellectual firepower of a Who's Who of Australian heavy hitters, including retail, logistics, property and finance titans, to emerge with 10 stimulus measures to rebuild confidence and reboot the economic strength of Western Australia.
The report Emerging Stronger Together: Leveraging the property industry to support Western Australia's economic recovery by consultancy NS Group has revealed 10 stimulus initiatives to support the State Government's desire to ensure WA emerges from the pandemic with a diverse, sustainable and strong economy.
High-impact initiatives to create maximum leverage for the State and industry are: cultivating public-private partnerships, creating demand, overhauling property taxes, investing in affordable housing, establishing a new industries fund, commercialising research, creating an infrastructure pipeline, city building, asset sales and creating the right settings for precinct energy initiatives.
Property Council WA and NS Group drew on the expertise of respected property and infrastructure leaders to ensure that the best minds devised sustainable initiatives to support the State Government's efforts for a positive post-pandemic legacy.
Participants included senior executives of Foundation Housing, Masonic Care WA, Bankwest, Hawaiian, Deutsche Bank, Minderoo, Curtin University, EY, Lavan, Brookfield, Iris Residential, Lendlease, Multiplex, AMP Capital and Mirvac.
Property doyen Leftfield Chairman Greg Paramor, Dexus CEO and Executive Director Darren Steinberg and Wesfarmers General Counsel Maya vanden Driesen also participated.
Property Council WA Executive Director Sandra Brewer said the State's property industry, which designs, plans, constructs and manages buildings, had almost unlimited potential to support WA's post-pandemic recovery and future prosperity.
"The State Government is overhauling the planning system and stimulating the housing sector," Ms Brewer said.
"We believe the longer-term economic impact of those tremendously positive initiatives could be turbocharged with genuine property tax reform, support for innovation and research, including for precinct energy initiatives, to diversify our economy and a focus on city building."
NS Group Chairman Ross Donaldson said the global upheaval created by the pandemic created a turning point for Western Australia.
"We have an opportunity to think differently," Mr Donaldson said. "Our long-awaited property market recovery in WA has been decimated by the virus but we must not squander this chance to think smarter about how we can capitalise on this to create a positive longer-term legacy for West Australians."
Ms Brewer said in deploying the intellectual capital of the country's best minds for the benefit of WA, Emerging Stronger Together supported State Government's objectives of ensuring WA taxpayers capture maximum value for funds spent; that spending underpins projects or enterprises that are sustainable in the longer-term and deliver the greatest possible benefit for the broader WA community.
"Our report is designed to encourage good policy that leverages the property industry, which employs 233,000 West Australians," Ms Brewer said.
"We want to work together with the State Government, supporting its State Recovery Advisory Group, to deliver the best possible result for creating WA jobs, generating sustainable economic activity, diversifying our economy and underpinning sustainable longer-term growth and recovery."
The report can be downloaded here.
