Progress payments in Western Australia
Here, the deposit cap is the lowest in the country, and the Act stops applying above $500,000. What a progress payment is, and how the stages of a build line up, is on the main guide.
Western Australia does not set stage percentages. Only Victoria and the Northern Territory do. Here the amounts are whatever your contract says, and the law constrains how they may be claimed rather than how large they may be — so the check below is a different one.
Western Australia: what the law sets
- Deposit
- Maximum 6.5% of the total cost of the work, before commencement
- Act applies
- Fixed price contracts valued between $7,500 and $500,000
- Stage percentages
- Not prescribed
- Progress payments
- Only for work actually performed or materials already supplied
- Home indemnity insurance
- Compulsory above $20,000; covers loss of deposit up to $20,000
Read from Building and Energy (WA), Home Building Contracts Act factsheet on 26 October 2026. Building and Energy, Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety is the authority on what applies to a particular contract, and a figure here is a ceiling rather than an entitlement.
6.5%, and a ceiling on the Act itself
Western Australia sets the lowest deposit cap in the country. A home building work contract cannot provide for a deposit before commencement that exceeds 6.5 per cent of the total cost of the work.
The more surprising limit is on the Act rather than on the builder. It applies to a fixed price contract valued between $7,500 and $500,000. Below that range and — the part worth noticing — above it, the Act does not apply, so on a $600,000 contract there is no statutory deposit cap at all and whatever the contract says governs. $500,000 is not an unusual price for a new home, and the protection most people assume is theirs stops there.
What a progress payment may cover
Once work has commenced, a progress payment must only be for work actually performed or materials already supplied. The regulator's own example is the plainest statement of the principle anywhere in Australia: a builder cannot demand a progress payment for the purchase and delivery of bricks until the bricks have been delivered to the site.
The deposit you can lose is larger than the deposit you can recover
Home indemnity insurance is compulsory for residential building work above $20,000, and it covers loss of deposit up to $20,000 (and completion or rectification up to $100,000) where the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent. At the cap, 6.5% of a $500,000 contract is $32,500 — so the most you can lawfully be asked for is more than the most you can get back. That gap is yours, and it is worth negotiating down before signing rather than discovering afterwards.
Questions about paying a builder in Western Australia
Does the 6.5% deposit cap apply to every contract?
No. The Home Building Contracts Act applies to fixed price contracts valued between $7,500 and $500,000. Outside that range — including above $500,000 — the statutory cap does not apply.
Are stage percentages set in WA?
No. What is set is the principle: once work has commenced a progress payment must only be for work actually performed or materials already supplied.
How much of my deposit is insured?
Home indemnity insurance covers loss of deposit up to $20,000 where the builder dies, disappears or becomes insolvent. A lawful 6.5% deposit on a $500,000 contract is $32,500, so the cover does not reach the cap.