The City of Karratha has decided to discontinue the Walgu Development with rising labour and materials costs reducing its feasibility.
To address the housing issue, the City has investigated the development of a mixed-use high rise building, comprising 82 residential units and commercial space on Lot 7020 and Lot 7018 Welcome Road Karratha.
A business plan was advertised in July 2021 for public comment and the project feasibility report identified build costs at an estimated $55m.
Cost of labour and materials continued to escalate after COVID-19 as the City worked towards acquisition of land and finalising design.
The variance in project cost prompted the City to procure a new Walgu Feasibility Report, finalised in October 2024, which found the project cost had increased to $122.2m.
Given this, Council decided to not proceed with the City’s Walgu Apartments development.
Council will instead work with interested private developers and stakeholders to facilitate development of the site.
City of Karratha Mayor Daniel Scott said the City remained committed to improving housing options in the region.
“We know housing continues to be the number one issue impacting our community and to help address this we put together a feasibility report on a mixed-use high rise building,” Cr Scott said.
“However, the rising costs of labor and materials have rendered the project unfeasible for the City to continue. This situation exemplifies market failure, indicating that intervention from State and Federal governments is necessary.”
“The outputs from our work on this project will remain available for the City, or any other proponent, to utilise in development of the site should market conditions improve.
“We are committed to working on housing solutions and generating activity where we can, this includes building houses on City owned land as well as pushing for more developments by State and Federal Government.”