It seems inevitable that the market will be hit with a rush of supply.

In Adelaide, you do a reverse feasibility because you know that the revenue is not going to go up. So you work backwards and make sure you can make money out of it, because in the apartment market, the rates per square metre has been negligible over the last 10 years, relative to other states, yet construction costs have gone up.

Despite the challenges driven by COVID and the lack of underlying population growth as a result, I believe WA’s residential construction sector is poised for a consistent period of growth driven by pent up demand, a shortage of rental properties and social and affordable housing stock.

Without intervention, a significant contraction in the volume of work on the ground would have occurred in the second half of 2020, leading to a contraction across the wider economy.

I worry that we’ll all become highly conservative and start talking down density and retreat back into our suburban enclaves.

The stand-out trend has been a willingness of buyers in the higher-end markets to pay for the development investment made by others.