PHOTO: Accomodation shortages are across the country. FILE

Crippling accommodation shortages are driving regional employers to buy houses so staff have a place to live.

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While many stakeholders are confident the trend will bolster communities in the long term, others fear it will put more pressure on those who are already struggling.

In Esperance, on the state’s south coast, the council chief executive was this week directed to look at buying two or three properties to ease housing issues in the short term.

They were also directed to develop a tender for building homes on three blocks, at West Beach and Castletown, in the longer term.

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Shire president Ian Mickel said housing was a major recruitment barrier given the town’s vacancy rate often neared zero per cent.

“We have people applying for senior management jobs and their first question is always, ‘Is there any accommodation?'” he said.

Other employers also offer housing for their staff, including Southern Ports, which has owned four properties in the town for some time, and Esperance Tjaltjraak Native Title Aboriginal Corporation, which has purchased five properties in the past year.

Esperance real estate agent Paul Blackman said he had never seen such high demand from businesses for residential homes during his 27 years in the job.

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“It’s another group of buyers that have entered the market that we haven’t had previously,” he said.

Real Estate Institute of WA chief executive Cath Hart said the pattern was occurring across the state as vacancy rates reached their lowest level in nearly 42 years in some areas.

But the trend has some concerned.

READ MORE VIA ABC

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