Sam has worked as a police officer for nine years, but still struggled to secure a home in Perth’s market

Despite being a long-serving officer for WA Police, Sam Collins has never been able to bridge the gap between borrowing capacity and Perth’s fast-rising house prices.

Collins said he had believed he would never be able to afford a suitable home after moving back to Perth, following a stint in Broome living in government-assisted housing through his work.

“I was renting in a few different places and looking to get into the market, but what I could afford on my own, I couldn’t get into anywhere suitable in terms of having enough space for my kids when I have them and being close to their school,” he said.

“What I could have afforded would have been probably a shoebox in a non-desirable area that was not good for me in my situation, so it was a bit of a worry.

“It’s an issue when essential workers are locked out of large sections of the housing market. I don’t know the answer really, the market has stabilised a little bit now, but it’s just gone to a level where it is unachievable.”

Collins, whose base salary is $111,000, said his borrowing capacity was $650,000 at maximum, but was more realistically sitting at $600,000.

He said he often earns more than his base amount per year due to shift penalties, overtime, and operational allowances.

According to Canstar research, for a single income household earning $125,000, the average borrowing capacity is $428,800.

That is based on a 30-year loan at an interest rate of 6.26 per cent per annum.

With average prices in Perth hovering around the $1 million mark, it doesn’t leave many options.

HOPE Housing chief-executive Phil White said he did not see the situation changing anytime soon.

The not-for-profit is aimed at helping essential workers, including police, nurses, and cleaners find a home within 30 minutes of their workplace. They have just expanded into Perth from Sydney.

“Even if we manage to solve this supply issue and build more housing, that is focused largely on high density and infill to try and satisfy the needs of the cities, and some people need housing that’s different to that,” White said.

A recent survey by the company found more than 60 per cent of essential workers who were renting were experiencing housing stress, and three-quarters of long-serving renters were concerned they may never own a home.

Collins said while he was fortunate to have never been handed a significant rent hike, he had still been concerned.

He started looking into initiatives like Keystart to help get his foot in the door, before stumbling across HOPE Housing.

“They hadn’t started anything in WA at the time, so it was more just to register my interest at that point, and then it took them maybe six months to get back to me and to let me know that they were looking to start something in WA,” he said.

HOPE Housing co-invests up to half of the purchase price, while the homeowner selects the property, lives in it, maintains it and progressively buys out HOPE’s share.

White said they had chosen to expand into Perth because it was “becoming unaffordable for lots of people”.

“House prices appreciated by 25 per cent in the last year, so the problem is growing faster in Perth than probably any other city – we saw a need,” he said.

There are now more than 2200 people on the not-for-profit’s waiting list. White said they tried to help those who were not already eligible for other schemes across the state.

“We know that we’re here for decades. The stat I like to use is that in 1999, a registered nurse would have taken five times their annual wage to buy a median price house in Sydney,” he said.

“Now that’s 18 times. Over in Perth, it’s 12 times. It’s 14 times in Brisbane, and you can go around all the capital cities – our cheapest capital city, which is Darwin, is still eight times the average wage of a registered nurse.”

White said other essential workers earning less would be even worse off.

“They need some additional sort of way to finance an appropriate house if they’re going to be able to buy in the communities that they serve,” he said.

“It is challenging, but that’s the nature of Australia with high population growth – we all want to live in these capital cities by the coast, and that does create demand that pushes up prices.”

White said the limiting factor was that HOPE Housing relied on investors.

“They do have to be what we call wholesale investors. It’s not available for mum-and-dad investors, but there’s plenty of people that have made good money in Perth,” he said.

“We’re hoping they would like to support their local essential workers.”