City Housing Initiatives

Access to, and the cost of housing, is a critical issue facing residents in the City of Karratha and a significant factor in achieving the City’s vision of becoming Australia’s most liveable regional city. 

The City has adopted a multi-pronged approach in support of a range of house and land initiatives, including advocating for the release of affordable residential land to the market and encouraging new residential development. For the City to attract and retain a skilled workforce for the implementation of services provided to the community, it is imperative that suitable affordable housing is an urgent priority.

In support of this strategy, the City has been progressing a series of initiatives to provide more houses and land stock to market directly. The City has also recently acquired or is investigating the acquisition of vacant land with plans to develop housing projects further and complement the already underway initiatives.
The City is actively facilitating and encouraging further development through the following summary of the current housing initiatives that have been progressed: 

• Nine Houses (GBSC/ Yurra), Nickol – Nine group dwellings realised through a development agreement with the local contractor, GBSC Yurra and completed in August 2022.
• Shakespeare Street Units Redevelopment, Bulgarra – Awarded to the local contractor, Trasan Contracting, for the redevelopment of 30 strata units to be allocated as part of the City’s affordable housing strategy. The initial six units were completed at the end of July 2022 and are in the process of being assigned to future tenants.
• Hancock Way Subdivision, Bulgarra – The subdivision includes 20 lots that provide a variety of sizes focused on wide street frontages and are currently available for purchase. As part of this process the City has retained six lots and appointed a design consultant to prepare exemplar designs for six large, medium and small-sized, single-storey dwellings. Subject to acceptance of the final design outcome, construction will commence on Lots 1, 3 and 9 Hancock Way and Lots 11,16 and 17 Dawn Lane, Bulgarra, within 2022-23 financial year.
• Two Houses, Jingarri Nickol – The City has released a current request for the construction of two single-storey brick veneer slabs on ground dwellings on vacant residential land it owns. The project is for a manager or executive level turnkey construction project that will enable occupation upon completion. From the award of the contract, both dwelings should be constructed within eight months.
• Six Houses, Wickham – Ongoing discussions with Rio Tinto to acquire six residential lots and consider design and construction of four houses for Western Australia Country Health Service (WACHS) in support of state government workers being based in the town.