Can you buy a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara?
Yes, and camp workers are often the strongest buyers in the room. Buying a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara comes down to one choice: a home you live in on your week off, with first home buyer support, or an investment you rent out while you stay on site. Here is how each lane works in 2026.
Short answer: yes, and you are probably in a better position to do it than most people living in Perth full time. Buying a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara is one of the most common files we write, because the camp worker’s numbers are the numbers lenders want: high, stable income and a savings rate that city renters can only dream about. The real question is not whether you can buy. It is which lane to take: a home you live in on your week off, with every first home buyer scheme behind you, or an investment property you rent out while you keep living on site. In 2026 that choice carries more weight than it used to, so here is both lanes, honestly, with the numbers that changed this year.
Can you get a home loan for a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara?
Short answer: yes. Living on site does not stop you buying in Perth. Lenders assess where you earn, not where you sleep, and permanent FIFO or residential mining income is treated like any other stable employment. Your address on the application can be a Perth family home, a rental, or the camp itself.
Start with the reframe, because it matters for anyone weighing a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara: your situation is an asset, not a complication. A permanent role on a roster, with a contract that names the roster, is the income certainty lenders are built to lend against. Add camp accommodation, which strips most of your living costs out of the picture, and your savings rate is doing what a decade of frugal city living does for someone else. We covered how lenders read roster income in detail in our guide to a 2 and 1 roster home loan; the short version is that base pay counts everywhere and the allowances on top are where lender choice matters.
What lenders do want is a clear story about occupancy, because it changes the loan. If you will live in the Perth house on your swing off, it is an owner-occupied loan. If it will be tenanted while you stay in camp, it is an investment loan. Different rates, different deposit rules, different government support. That is the fork in the road, and it is the rest of this guide.
Should a camp worker buy a Perth home to live in or an investment property?
Short answer: if you qualify as a first home buyer, the owner-occupier lane is usually the stronger financial move in 2026, because it unlocks a 5 per cent deposit with no lenders mortgage insurance and, on a new build, the $10,000 grant and stamp duty relief. The investment lane wins when you already own, or when you want the property earning while you are away and your income carries the rest.
This is the question every camp worker eventually asks about a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara, and it deserves a straight answer. For a first-time buyer on a Pilbara roster, the schemes are the tiebreaker. The Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme lets you buy in Perth with a 5 per cent deposit and no lenders mortgage insurance, with no income cap since 1 October 2025, on a property up to $850,000. It is owner-occupier only: you must move in within six months of settlement and live there while the guarantee is in place. A roster worker who spends their week off in the house is living there; the scheme does not require you to be home every night. Buy an investment first, and you have used up your first home buyer status for that scheme: any property interest held in the last ten years disqualifies you.
Here is the WA wrinkle that most people get wrong. The WA First Home Owner Grant and the first home owner rate of duty test whether you have ever lived in a property you owned for six continuous months, not whether you have ever owned one. An investment property you never lived in does not, on RevenueWA’s published criteria, cost you the WA grant or the WA duty concession on a later home. So a camp worker who buys a Perth investment now and a home later keeps the WA support and loses only the federal 5 per cent scheme. That is a real, quantifiable trade, and it is the one to price before you decide.
Living in camp is not a reason to wait. It is the reason you can afford to move now.
What changed for investors buying a house in Perth in 2026?
Short answer: two things, both dated. The Federal Budget on 12 May 2026 limited negative gearing to new builds from 1 July 2027 for properties bought after Budget night, and replaced the 50 per cent capital gains discount with indexation from the same date. And Perth’s median house price reached $938,000 in June, with REIWA flagging $1 million by year end. Neither is a reason not to invest; both change which property you buy.
The tax change is now law. On the ATO’s summary, from 1 July 2027 negative gearing on residential property is limited to new builds, and the 50 per cent CGT discount for individuals is replaced by cost base indexation with a 30 per cent minimum rate on real gains. Properties held at 7:30pm on 12 May 2026 are exempt from the negative gearing change, and the CGT change only applies to gains accruing after 1 July 2027. For a camp worker weighing an established Perth investment, that means rental losses after mid-2027 will only offset other rental income or property gains, not your site wages. For a new build, the old treatment stays. Talk to an accountant about your numbers; what a broker can tell you is that the lending side has not changed, and that the new-versus-established question now has a tax answer as well as a price one.
The price side is the other clock on a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara. REIWA’s June 2026 quarterly update put Perth’s median house sale price at $938,000 and its median weekly house rent at $750, with the vacancy rate around 2 per cent. Rents like that are why a Perth investment bought from camp can run close to neutral on a strong income. Prices like that are why “I will buy when I come off the roster” has become an expensive plan.
How do lenders assess a FIFO investor differently from an owner-occupier?
Short answer: an investment loan carries a slightly higher rate, usually needs a larger deposit unless you have equity, and lets the lender count part of the expected rent, commonly around 70 to 80 per cent of it, as income. An owner-occupier loan gets the sharper rate and the government schemes, but the rent is not there to help the servicing.
Two lanes for buying in Perth from the Pilbara
| Setting | Owner-occupier (live there on your swing off) | Investment (tenanted while you stay in camp) |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum deposit | As low as 5 per cent under the 5% Deposit Scheme with no lenders mortgage insurance, if you are a first home buyer. | Commonly 10 to 20 per cent, or equity in another property; lenders mortgage insurance applies above 80 per cent. |
| Interest rate | Owner-occupier pricing, the sharpest available. | Investment pricing, typically a margin above owner-occupier rates. |
| Rent in the assessment | Not applicable. | Lenders commonly count 70 to 80 per cent of appraised rent as income. |
| WA First Home Owner Grant and duty concession | Available on a new home under $800,000 from 7 May 2026; duty concessions to $800,000. | Not available on this purchase; a never-occupied investment does not cost you eligibility later. |
| Federal 5% Deposit Scheme | Available if eligible. | Not available, and buying this first ends your eligibility. |
| Tax from 1 July 2027 | No rental income or deductions; main residence exemption on sale. | Negative gearing only on new builds for purchases after 12 May 2026; CGT discount replaced by indexation. |
One more lending point that favours the roster worker buying a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara. Because camp living keeps your declared expenses low and your income high, your servicing position is strong in either lane, and a broker can often show you both loans side by side on the same day: what you could borrow to live in, and what you could borrow to rent out. The numbers are frequently closer than people expect, which is exactly why the scheme and tax settings above end up deciding it.
Is a new build the smarter house in Perth while working in the Pilbara?
Short answer: for a lot of roster workers in 2026, yes. A new build is the only property type that keeps negative gearing after 1 July 2027 if you invest, and it is the only type that attracts the $10,000 grant if you live in it. Either way, building new lines up more support than buying established.
The two lanes converge on the same answer more often than they used to. As an owner-occupier first home buyer, a new build gets you the $10,000 grant, zero stamp duty on land up to $450,000, and the 5 per cent deposit scheme, which we walk through in our guide to a house and land package loan for first home buyers. As an investor, a new build is the property class the Federal Government chose to leave negative gearing on.
Building a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara is more practical than it sounds. Progress payments are paid by the lender on inspection, the builder deals with the site, and the design decisions can be made on your swing off. The one thing to line up early is the finish date against your scheme timeframes and your own plans for coming off the roster.
From the broker’s desk: the file we see every month is the couple where one partner is in camp on a 2 and 1 and the other is renting in Perth with the kids. They think they need to wait until the roster ends. They do not. The camp income, the low expenses and the first home buyer schemes put them in the strongest position they will ever be in. The roster is not the obstacle. The roster is the deposit.
How do you buy a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara, step by step?
Short answer: decide the lane with a broker before you look at property, get pre-approved for both if you are close, then buy on your week off with the paperwork already done. Everything a lender needs from a roster worker can be done remotely; the only thing that has to happen in Perth is the inspection.
- Run both lanes with a broker. Owner-occupier with schemes, investment with rent counted. One sitting, two numbers, and a clear view of what the 5 per cent scheme is worth to you if you keep it.
- Get the income evidence together. Contract naming the roster, three months of payslips showing allowances, group certificate or income statement, and the employer’s letter if any allowance is not on the payslip.
- Get pre-approved before the swing off. A 5% scheme place is reserved for 90 days once pre-approved, so line it up before you fly out, not after you find the house.
- Inspect on your week off, buy from site. Contracts, finance approval, settlement and even a building inspection report can all be handled while you are on site. A Perth-based settlement agent and a broker who is used to roster timing make it painless.
- Structure for the next one. If this is an investment, set it up so the equity is usable for the home later. If it is a home, keep the loan simple and the offset full; the next property is easier when the first one is clean.
If you are picking someone to run this, our list of questions to ask a mortgage broker in WA is the place to start. Add one: ask how many files they have settled for clients who were on site the day the contract was signed. Then ask them to show you both lanes. For most people asking whether they can buy a house in Perth while working in the Pilbara, that conversation ends with a much shorter timeline than the one they walked in with.
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Start with a chatThis guide is general information for the Australian market, not advice about your situation. Lender credit policy changes, and what applies to you depends on your circumstances. Pilbara Finance is a credit representative (478535) of Mortgage Specialists Pty Ltd, Australian Credit Licence 387025.