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About Kooky and Shaka →Developers of apartments and townhouses in Western Australia can now apply for a state-backed promise to buy the homes they fail to sell. The WA Government said in a media statement dated 8 October 2026 that applications for its A$250 million Pre-sale Guarantee are open, and that they will be accepted on an ongoing basis through Keystart.
The idea is simple to state. Keystart guarantees to buy up to 50 per cent of a development's unsold homes when the building is finished, and up to 60 per cent for a project in regional WA. The government expects the scheme to unlock up to 1,200 new apartments and townhouses across the state. The Real Estate Institute of Western Australia (REIWA) welcomed the launch the same day.
WA Government media statement, 8 October 2026. The share rises to 60% for regional projects.
Why pre-sales hold projects back
A medium or high density project is rarely built on hope alone. REIWA, in its statement of 8 October, describes the usual condition plainly: a developer must sell a set number of dwellings before construction starts. Those early contracts, signed off the plan, are the pre-sales.
When the contracts are slow to arrive, the project waits. Deputy Premier and Treasurer Rita Saffioti said in the government's statement that high pre-sale requirements can hold up apartment and townhouse projects, or prevent them from going ahead at all.
REIWA adds a detail about which projects have cleared that hurdle. According to the institute, it is mainly luxury apartment projects that have been viable in recent years. The guarantee is not limited to that end of the market: part of every supported project has to be priced below a Keystart limit, as set out further down.
Related readDubai CommerCity adds 91,000 sq m in an AED 1.8 billion second phaseThe institute also describes a building industry under strain. It says the sector is showing signs of contracting, and points to three causes: higher costs linked to the conflict in the Middle East, softer demand and a shortage of bricks.
How the guarantee works
The mechanism has two possible endings, and the government's statement sets out both.
In the first, the guarantee is never used. If the developer sells the guaranteed homes while the project is being built, the guarantee lapses, at no extra cost to the developer or to the State. Keystart's own scheme page, which carries no publication date, says the developer must actively market the homes Keystart has committed to, and that the contract over a home is rescinded when that home is sold to another buyer during construction.
In the second, the homes are still unsold at completion and the guarantee is called. Keystart then buys them at a discount to market value. The scheme page puts the minimum discount at 10 per cent for metropolitan projects and 7.5 per cent in regional WA, and says Keystart pays no deposit. It also gives a sunset date for the commitment, generally 12 months after practical completion.
- ApplicationThe developer applies to Keystart. Applications are open on an ongoing basis.
- CommitmentKeystart agrees to buy a share of the project's homes if they remain unsold.
- ConstructionThe developer keeps marketing those homes to the public while the project is built.
- Sold in timeEach home sold to another buyer drops out of the guarantee, at no extra cost.
- Still unsoldAt completion, Keystart buys the remaining guaranteed homes at a discount to market value.
The discount is what keeps the incentive pointing the right way. A developer who sells to the public receives the market price; one who falls back on Keystart receives less. The guarantee is a floor under the project, not a replacement for selling it.
Where the homes go if Keystart buys them
The government's statement lists three routes for a home bought under the guarantee.
Related readDevelopers look at land along Dubai's 80 km Fourth Corridor roadThe first is the A$210 million Urban Connect Shared Equity program. Under it, the government takes an equity share in the home, and the statement says buyers pay a 2 per cent deposit. Eligible homes bought under the guarantee can be offered to Keystart customers through that program.
The second route is the open market: the home is simply sold. The third is allocation to other government housing programs.
Housing and Works Minister John Carey, who is also Minister for Planning and Lands, linked the scheme to two groups of buyers in the statement. "This will help more people into their first home and provide more opportunities for people to downsize," he said.
Which projects qualify
The guarantee is not open to every project. The government's statement says a portion of the homes in each supported development must be priced below Keystart's headline property price limit. When the scheme was first announced, in a media statement dated 15 April 2026, the government put that portion at no less than 30 per cent of a development's homes, and said the limit is linked to REIWA's median house price for Perth. The October statement speaks only of "a portion".
That April statement also announced higher Keystart price limits: from A$800,000 to A$860,000 statewide for low deposit loans, from A$730,000 to A$800,000 for Urban Connect Shared Equity, and from A$660,000 to A$720,000 for other shared equity. Keystart's scheme page says the affordable dwellings in a project must be valued at or below its maximum purchase price for low deposit home loans, and that an independent valuer confirms the valuation.
Related readDubai Islands gets a shoreline contract and a new Bay Estate communityThere is a size test too. REIWA's summary says the scheme covers apartments, home units and townhouses, in Perth projects of ten or more dwellings and in regional projects of at least four. The government's statement confirms that regional projects face lower minimum dwelling requirements, without giving the numbers.
| Term | Perth metropolitan | Regional WA |
|---|---|---|
| Share of homes guaranteed | Up to 50% | Up to 60% |
| Minimum discount to market value | 10% | 7.5% |
| Minimum project size | Ten dwellings | Four dwellings |
Share: WA Government, 8 October 2026. Discount: Keystart scheme page, undated. Project size: REIWA, 8 October 2026.
The line between the two columns is drawn by Keystart. Its scheme page defines the metropolitan area as the Perth region, running roughly from Two Rocks to Singleton and inland to Wooroloo. Peel counts as regional.
What a developer pays
A guarantee that lapses costs the developer nothing further, but applying for one is not free. Keystart's scheme page lists two fees, both including GST. The application fee is A$5,500 and is not refundable. The establishment fee rises with the size of the commitment, in five bands.
| Keystart commitment | Establishment fee |
|---|---|
| Up to A$10 million | A$11,000 |
| Above A$10 million, up to A$20 million | A$16,500 |
| Above A$20 million, up to A$30 million | A$22,000 |
| Above A$30 million, up to A$40 million | A$27,500 |
| Above A$40 million, up to A$50 million | A$33,000 |
Keystart Pre-sale Guarantee scheme page, undated. The page gives the bands as A$0-10m to A$40-50m.
The top band stops at A$50 million because that is the most Keystart will commit to a single project, according to the same page. The arithmetic of the whole scheme follows from it: A$250 million divided by A$50 million is five, so five projects at the maximum would use the full amount. Smaller commitments would spread it across more developments.
The page adds that applications are assessed first come, first served. With applications accepted on an ongoing basis and no closing date given in the government's statement, the order in which developers apply matters.
How New South Wales did it first
Western Australia is not the first state to underwrite pre-sales. New South Wales runs a Pre-sale Finance Guarantee, described on a NSW Government planning page last updated on 3 August 2026. That page sets it out as a A$1 billion revolving fund running from October 2025 to September 2030.
Related readIs a Dubai off-plan launch authorised? What a broker can verifyThe core terms are close to WA's. The NSW scheme covers up to 50 per cent of a project's dwellings, with a cap of A$50 million per project, a minimum discount of 10 per cent and a minimum of four homes. Its charges are heavier than Keystart's: the page lists application fees of A$10,000 to A$40,000, establishment fees of A$10,000 to A$50,000 and a line fee of 1 to 1.5 per cent a year.
The NSW page also gives a count of what the scheme had done by 21 July 2026: seven projects, A$179,292,298.50 committed, 152 dwellings directly supported and 1,213 dwellings enabled. The gap between the last two figures shows how such a scheme is meant to work. The State commits to a small share of the homes, and the commitment allows the whole project to proceed.
WA's version is a quarter of the size, at A$250 million against A$1 billion, and it adds terms of its own: the higher 60 per cent share and the smaller discount for regional projects, and the requirement that part of each project sits below Keystart's price limit. REIWA's new president, Rob Mandanici, placed the state in a wider picture in the institute's statement. "Perth isn't the only market struggling with the delivery of new affordable housing," he said.
The reaction and what comes next
Mr Mandanici, whom the REIWA Council elected as president in a result the institute announced on 8 October, described the scheme as a significant step forward for the state's housing market. He was also careful about timing, saying it will take time for the homes to be built. REIWA names housing supply and affordability among the priorities of his term, alongside regulatory change and rental reform.
The institute's own figures give a sense of the market the new homes will join. Its Perth snapshot for the week ending 4 October 2026 counted 8,013 listings for sale and 530 sales in the week.
The government presents the guarantee as one piece of a larger programme. The Pre-sale Guarantee is an initiative of the 2026-27 State Budget, which the statement says carries a record A$4.7 billion housing investment. It puts the total committed to housing and homelessness since 2021 at A$10.8 billion. Mr Carey said the government has delivered more than 4,300 social and affordable homes and invested in more than 40 Build-to-Rent projects.
The April statement said applications were expected to open in the second half of 2026, and that timetable has been met. From here the scheme has no announced deadline: applications are open on an ongoing basis, and Keystart publishes the details on its Pre-sale Guarantee page.
What the government's statement does give is the measure the scheme has set for itself: up to 1,200 apartments and townhouses, in Perth and in the regions, with part of every supported project priced under Keystart's limit.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Agents Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for real estate professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
