As reported by the ABC, the WA Government purchased Fraser Suites in East Perth for $110 million and plans to convert the 19-storey tower into 236 social and affordable units.
The cost is said to be significantly lower than if the government had approved construction of a building of similar size.
But not everybody is happy, with residents in the local area reportedly furious that they weren’t informed of the government’s intention.
Residents have voiced their concerns about safety and parking, and believe that conversion of the hotel to social housing could result in antisocial behaviour and impact the price of their own properties.
Residents have also been dismayed that they were not consulted about the purchase, which WA Minister for Housing, John Carey, said was not possible prior because it could have significantly increased the price of the property.
At the end of May, Western Australia’s public housing waitlist was more than 22,000 applications, with 7,291 said to urgently require a home.
But this WA part “solution” could potentially be a litmus test for other state governments looking at reducing their own social housing challenges by following suit and buying up hotels and converting them for a different purpose.
A hotel insider, who did not want to be named, told Event Organisers with the pressure on state and territory governments, and the federal government, to increase its level of social and affordable housing there was a real possibility that more housing could be sourced by repurposing hotels, particularly under-performing ones.
“In reality, however, the buoyancy of the hotel sector in Australia presently does limit the number of properties out there,” they said.
“The other factor that will require consideration is that a property cannot be a hotel one day and a unit complex the next. Significant internal changes will have to be made and there will be a cost associated with that.
“Parking would also be a major hurdle, with the majority of hotels – even serviced apartments – having limited spaces available to guests.”