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The scoring comes following a string of policies from the Western Australian (WA) government attempting to boost construction in the supply-strapped state.
The Housing Industry Association (HIA) Housing Scorecard ranks the eight states and territories by comparing current residential building conditions against long-term averages across home building and renovation activity, lending data and population flows.
“Western Australia retained its status as Australia’s strongest home-building market, even extending its lead atop HIA’s latest Housing Scorecard,” HIA senior economist Tom Devitt said.
“Western Australia’s home-building recovery has produced the strongest detached housing sector in the nation, the equal strongest renovations sector, and the equal second strongest multi-units market,” he said.
According to the report, activity in the state has been supported by strong migration trends, with continued inflows from both overseas and interstate.
“Activity has been supported by the most impressive migration dynamics in the nation, with tens of thousands of arrivals each year from both overseas and interstate,” Devitt said.
Queensland and South Australia rounded out the top three positions in the Housing Scorecard, with HIA saying the three states are leading the national housing recovery across most key indicators.
By comparison, NSW, Victoria and the Northern Territory were positioned in the middle of the rankings, with HIA noting these jurisdictions continue to record relatively soft levels of new home building entering the pipeline. However, HIA said housing demand in those markets continues to be underpinned by overseas migration, with activity expected to strengthen further.
The Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania ranked at the bottom of the scorecard, with both jurisdictions continuing to underperform across detached housing, multi-unit and renovation indicators.
“It is arguably too soon to see sustained evidence of recovery in Tasmania’s approvals or building activity data, and only early signs in the Australian Capital Territory,” Devitt added.
Boosting supply
Despite WA leading in the latest Housing Scorecard, brokers have reported a lack of housing supply in the state, with house prices in Perth growing faster than any other capital city.
Adam Burstein, managing director of Core Finance, told Broker Daily that limited land availability and tight listing volumes were continuing to place pressure on buyers across multiple price points.
He said: “Demand has always been there, but the product hasn’t. The market is still extremely busy with both owner-occupiers and investors, especially around house and land. But there’s just not enough land to sell to the clients who want to buy it.
“The cheaper price points go faster, but across the board it’s tight. Even around the $1 million mark, it’s very hard to get into the market.”
The state government, however, has been launching a range of policies to boost supply.
In February 2026, the government announced that it will increase the land tax exemption for build-to-rent developments.
Under the legislation, the land tax exemption for eligible build-to-rent projects will rise from 50 per cent to 75 per cent – a move brokers broadly welcomed as a positive step towards boosting housing supply.
Following that, it was announced that WA’s stamp duty concession scheme would be expanded for off-the-plan and under-construction homes.
The $70.6 million initiative, announced by the Cook government, will broaden the scope of the concession to include survey-strata dwellings for the first time, opening the scheme to smaller developments, such as duplexes and triplexes.
Brokers said the expanded concession is expected to improve the viability of some projects while also supporting additional medium-density housing supply.
WA has also followed in the footsteps of NSW through its introduction of a Pre-sale Guarantee Scheme.
The $250 million initiative is expected to unlock up to 1,200 new apartments and town houses by addressing one of the primary barriers to development finance: high pre-sale thresholds required by lenders.
Under the scheme, Keystart (Western Australia’s home loan initiative) will guarantee the purchase of up to 50 per cent of unsold dwellings in eligible developments upon completion. This is intended to help developers meet lender requirements and commence construction sooner.