WA rental shortage: Why this basic Tom Price 3x2 costs the same as a luxe eight-bed Mosman Park pad

A basic brick house more than 1400km from Perth’s leafy western suburbs will cost those desperate for a lease an eye-watering $2500 a week — making it the second most expensive home in WA being advertised on real estate websites. The three-bedroom, two-bathroom abode in the Pilbara mining town of Tom Price has no infinity pool or private movie room. And its views are of a concrete driveway, some patchy grass and plenty of red dirt. But its prodigious price is a sign of the State’s surging resources sector and crippling rental shortage which puts the Pilbara on par with Peppermint Grove and other exclusive suburbs perched along Perth’s coastline or Swan River. The most expensive rental in WA at the moment is a “resort-style home” in Claremont with rooftop pool, spa, sauna, river views and undercroft parking for five cars at $3000 a week. For the same price as the Tom Price house you can get an eight-bed, four-bath Mosman Park home with spectacular views over the Swan River from a huge balcony and plenty of luxury modern fixings. Or you could look south of the river at Applecross to a four-bed, four-storey sprawling mansion with a pool, balconies and views of the river and city. Western suburbs-focused Milestone Realty Dalkeith Nedlands, which is responsible for the Tom Price house, would know these comparisons well. The agency boasts on its website that it can sell properties “at top dollar” within 60 days and founder Jason Van Straalen’s profile pins him as a purveyor of “distinguished” properties. “Every day we get a call or two looking for rentals up that way and the truth is there is no supply, and there is so much demand it is crazy,” Mr Van Straalen said. “I have got several inquiries, where it goes from there we will soon see. “The prices went down so dramatically (at the end of the boom), no one wanted to invest in the town and build ... now the demand has gone through the roof and no one is prepared for it.” Crawford Realty Newman licensee Brett Philp, one of few realtors active in Tom Price, said the asking price was “off its chops”. Mr Philp said the Tom Price rental market was dominated by companies seeking accommodation, adding: “The general public can’t afford that sort of rental”. The $2500-a-week Tom Price home can best be described as modest. The front yard is a patchy combination of gravel and grass with an old driveway into a single open carport. Inside, orange-brown tiles, common in the Pilbara, run into the main areas. The kitchen is modern though devoid of features one might expect at such an asking price. Tom Price is a pretty town but services, shopping and entertainment are limited. On the flip side, residents live a stone’s throw away from the gorges of Karijini National Park and in the shadow of the picturesque Mt Nameless. More than half of the town’s employed residents work in iron ore and the main employer is mining giant Rio Tinto, which operates several mines nearby. And at $102,306 a year, the Shire of Ashburton, which covers Tom Price, lays claim to the highest average income in Australia.