‘WFH public servants to blame for slow go in progress’

Property stalwart James Limnios has lashed out at bureaucrats who work from home, claiming they were holding up projects and adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to project costs.

Mr Limnios said thousands of families in Perth were struggling to keep a roof over their family’s head because a massive failures to provide enough homes for the population.

He said all three levels of government were slow when it came to development applications, causing approval times to double and sometimes quadruple.

Mr Limnios added that he believed the trend of working from home was partly to blame, having hindered productivity.

His scathing criticism coincides with figures showing 13,733 new lots were given final approval in the Perth metropolitan region last financial year, which was lower than the 14,124 approvals during the same period in 2015-2016.

“This is because the responsible party that has the history or seniority is not available five days a week and many of the issues associated with delays are because of the need of a quick or simple fact check or direction,” he said.

“It is no wonder Australia has a productivity crisis, there is no urgency or responsibility.”

He said various regulations had helped created a tyrannical process.

“It seems that every few years the bureaucracy comes up with new ways to add to the ever-burgeoning compliance and information required to get a simple project approved,” he said.

“Where Development Approvals took a genuine 90 days, its now 6-12 months for anything considered slightly non-conforming or outside the box. It literally adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to a process that was straight forward.”

Mr Limnios said WA had little hope of hitting the 25,800 homes a year target that must be achieved to meet its portion of the 129,000-home National Housing Accord target by June 2029.

He referenced the 2026 World Rent Index By City, produced by LivingCostIndex, which ranked Perth in the top 50 most expensive rental cities of 1005 cities analysed.

While it is unclear if the ranking considered relative affordability, there is no question of Perth’s rising housing stress.

To boost rental housing supply in Perth, Mr Limnios recommends a raft of initiatives, including freezing land taxes and council rates for Perth landlords until the rental vacancy rate rises above 3 per cent for a consistent period of time.

He also called for a GST and stamp duty reduction for infill developers to make these projects more affordable for investors.

He also said it was time for a moratorium on any new regulations on the private rental market.

Mr Limnios called for an urgent review of unnecessary additional costs tagged on to developments such as public art contribution levies and repeated design review panel meetings, which boosted consultancy costs.

A spokesperson from the Department of Planning Lands and Heritage rejected Mr Limnios’ claims about public servants working from home, saying any flexible arrangements in place were subject to operational requirements and did not affect service delivery.

“Staff remain available to meet business needs and deliver their responsibilities, whether working from the office or remotely,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson also said the State Government’s planning reforms aimed to shave 30 days off assessment timeframes for individual houses.

The West Australian — Wednesday, September 9, 2026 By Kim Macdonald