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Social housing in one of Perth’s southern suburbs has been left standing with no completion date in sight, even though it was due to be finished four years ago.
The Hilton housing revitalisation project should have delivered 14 architecturally designed timber-frame social housing homes across the suburb by 2022.
But as of this month, construction has only begun – and stalled – on six of the Bernard Seeber Architects homes, with the remaining eight given a standard home-build design instead.
WA Greens leader Brad Pettitt said the years of delays and multiple builders entering into liquidation resulted in half-finished homes that could have been used during the current housing crisis.
“There should be two families living in here now, but despite repeatedly pushing the state government on this, they’re failing to finish these properties,” Pettitt said.
“Most depressingly, this is not an isolated incident. These are scattered all over this suburb, unfinished houses in the middle of a housing crisis.
“The government needs to get on and actually finish this housing. It’s a really good design by a really great local architect, and it’s outrageous that it’s not completed.”
Pettitt was the mayor of Fremantle when Bernard Seeber Architects won the design competition in 2017 for the social housing project.
The 14 houses were to be built on seven different sites in Hilton and were anticipated to cost $200,000 per house at the time of the design.
But Pettitt says more than $4 million has been spent on the project to date.
“If they had delivered it on time, at the time, these would have been both inhabited and delivered much more cheaply than they have now. But instead, we’re going to spend way more than needed to be spent, whilst failing to even deliver these houses,” he said.
“And you can see the amount of money that’s been wasted here on toilets and security, and all those things, rather than getting in and finishing houses.”
Pettitt said the original builder assigned to the project went broke, as well as the builder who was hired after.
Small builder Jaguar Constructions currently holds the contract for the homes and told 9 News Perth it took over the project in 2024, but hasn’t worked on site since December.
The company says it’s ready to finish the homes on a slim profit margin, but is waiting on the state government before construction can resume. Meanwhile, it’s covering the cost of maintaining the site.
Hilton residents said it was frustrating to see homes sitting idle while so many people are searching for somewhere to live.
“This has been going on for a number of years, and our poor neighbours on the street have been living right in front of a building site all this time with a young family, so that’s really unfortunate,” Louise Goodes said.
“A lot of people are looking for somewhere to live now, and these houses could have been that answer.”
Rocky Terry said it was “totally ridiculous” the homes were still empty.
“I’m a resident here, and Hilton’s a wonderful place to live, and these social houses here at the back have been going on for years,” Terry said.
“It’s just totally ridiculous with the housing crisis that we haven’t got people in them. Now a lot of people say, ‘It’s good you haven’t got any neighbours’. No, I’d like to have neighbours, because that’s what we’re trying to do for people. And it’s got to happen.
“They’re so close to finishing it now. I mean it’s past lockup, and they should be in there. They should have been in there a couple of years ago. It’s just not on. It’s just incompetence by someone.”
Bernard Seeber Architects director Georgina Willis said the idea behind the design for the homes was to create new infill density for rear strata lots at an affordable price.
“The City of Fremantle granted special dispensation that allowed for two individual dwellings, so we set out to create inclusive, diverse, site-responsive architecture that is also humble and recognises the history and the culture of Hilton,” Willis said.
She said the dwellings were meant to be built within a year of construction commencing.
But despite the time it’s taken to get the buildings complete, the team would still like to see them come to fruition.
“Ultimately, we’d like to see the completion of this project and whether that be this project or another new project with these sort of dwelling typologies, and that would be great if it’s in conjunction with the Department of Communities or Housing and Works,” she said.
“Because ultimately, it’s the community that benefits. The intention is to provide quality living for people who are vulnerable in communities and so Fremantle can benefit as well as the broader community.”
Housing and Works Minister John Carey said the state government has delivered more than 4300 social and affordable homes to date.
“In the vast majority of cases, projects are delivered without issue; however, we are not immune from the challenges in the construction market,” Carey said.
He confirmed the original builders for the project went into administration and therefore had their build contracts terminated.
“Eight of the 14 Hilton homes were delivered under a new builder and tenanted after shifting to a design and construct model,” he said.
“The Department of Housing and Works is also working with a new builder to complete the remaining six Hilton homes.”
WA Premier Roger Cook said he didn’t know the details of the specific homes in Hilton, but there could be a range of reasons why a property might be vacant.
“Firstly, it might be part of a broader development in the area. There may be other issues associated with the infrastructure for the area. So we’ll always make sure that we can get our social housing stock back into the market, so we can get roofs over the heads of people as soon as possible,” he said.
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