SIX almost-completed homes in Hilton have sat empty for years while another six partially built townhouses in nearby Hamilton Hill were demolished this week, prompting Greens MLC Brad Pettitt to accuse the Cook government of failing to finish housing projects.

The Hamilton Hill demolition follows the collapse of Inspired Homes in April 2025 and the subsequent discovery of construction problems that led to DevelopmentWA deciding they should be demolished and rebuilt.

But for Dr Pettitt, it’s part of a bigger problem involving a string of government-owned housing sites across Fremantle.

He says six architecturally designed social homes in Hilton are still unfinished more than four years after construction began, despite being about 90 per cent complete.

“The builder went broke April ‘25, so work stopped since then,” Dr Pettitt said.

“By July of that year, we’re getting people saying ‘what’s going on on this site,’ so then we started asking questions of government.”

The Hamilton Hill townhouses, at Yongka Road in the OneOneFive development, were being built by Inspired Homes for DevelopmentWA.

Housing minister John Carey’s parliamentary secretary Katrina Stratton told Parliament in May more than $1 million had already been spent on the six Hamilton Hill townhouses, with demolition and rebuilding adding substantially to the eventual cost. 

Dr Pettitt said the government should have intervened much earlier, rather than allowing the project to deteriorate.

“Most of my frustration here, is government knew that these guys are in trouble, and there’s always opportunities to step in and find a solution, or you can just kind of let the process of this play out.

“It got to the point where all all the materials were on the site, all it needed was to put the roof on and some windows in, and they could have at least sealed them up. Then they could have worked out what to do; for the sake of a couple of $100,000 of completing a site, we now have wasted over a million dollars by the government.”

Housing minister John Carey has said DevelopmentWA is seeking to recover costs from the failed builder.

But Pettitt said that was unlikely to provide much comfort to taxpayers.

“Well, they’re going to say we’re going to try and get it back from the builder, but the builder’s gone bust. There’s nothing there.”

He said the Hamilton Hill project was not an isolated example.

“Part of my annoyance here, is this is not the only one. I mean, we’ve got the ones in Hilton left unfinished. So this whole series of these government projects just kind of just fall by the wayside. It’s like no one’s taking responsibility.”

The six two-bedroom dwellings at 28A Harwood Street, 26A Grigg Place and 14A Joslin Street were the subject of a construction tender in 2020.

Dr Pettitt was involved with the original design competition while still mayor of Fremantle, with architect Bernard Seeber’s designs selected.

“So this goes back 10 years. When I was mayor, we ran a design comp and Bernard Seeber won them with a beautiful design. They finally started building them in 2020.”

Dr Pettitt said work petered out about four years ago when builder Candor Contractors when bust.

“No one for four years and they are 90 per cent done,” Dr Pettitt said in frustration. 

“These ones are doing my head in. All the windows, doors, roofs; the whole thing’s finished except the inside. But they’re not locked up. For four years, they’ve sat there, 10 per cent away from being finished and having people in them.”

Dr Stratton confirmed eight of the 14 architecturally designed Hilton homes had been completed and tenanted, while six remained incomplete.

The Department of Housing and Works said it was working with a new builder but needed an extensive review of the existing work to ensure it was fit for purpose. The government disclosed it had spent $4.1 million to date.

Dr Pettitt said the delay had also affected neighbouring residents.

“And then, of course, the neighbours are stuck with these half-built building.

“There’s just this pattern, especially around Freo, of government-owned sites being delayed, and we see it with Davis Park, which has finally now got some activity, but that’s 10 years. Ten years to get nothing built. All they’ve done is earthworks.

“There’s Holland Street, so up the top near Carrington, nothing. All they’ve done is demolished. Then there’s just these empty sites on Chalmers Street and Holland.

“This is for me becoming symbolic of of government that’s more interested in press releases about starting things than actually completing them.

Dr Pettitt said the condition of the Hamilton Hill buildings had become increasingly obvious.

“We asked a question early this year because at this point they were looking really bad, because they hadn’t finished the cladding on the outside and the insulation was blowing off and all stuff.”

Asked whether there was a mechanism to bring in another construction team, he pointed to the City of Fremantle’s experience with the redevelopment of Kings Square.

“Well, the reason we know there is, is because City of Freo did this with King Square, where the builder went under and then the City of Freo took over the project.”

Pettitt said the City retained subcontractors and keep the project moving.

“So this is part of my frustration. You know you can do this, but instead they decided to have a standoff with the builder until everybody loses.”

by STEVE GRANT