Real estate agents in the South West are receiving calls from Perth families looking to rent homes in Dunsborough for six months during the COVID-19 pandemic.
One real estate agent distributed flyers to residents asking people to contact them if they had vacant family homes available, prior to intrastate travel restrictions being put in place by the WA Government.
The real estate agent said they had been receiving calls from Perth residents for the past two weeks, and that they were trying to be helpful to people who may have had bookings cancelled and those with vacant properties.
WA Premier Mark McGowan restricted all non-essential travel into WA by road, air, rail and sea on Tuesday March 24, 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr McGowan said they would be putting in place restrictions on the movement between WA's regions, and clear guidelines around this would be released soon.
Premier Mark McGowan said these restriction were put in place to protect the health of the community.
"Any unnecessary intrastate travel needs to be avoided," he said.
"It is important we minimise the spread of this virus.
"Essential travel is vital but we need to avoid everything else.
"These measures we will put in place will protect regional Western Australians, especially the elderly and Aboriginal people.
"Everyone must adhere to the rules and it is pretty straightforward what the rules are."
Vasse MLA Libby Mettam said there was high concern about how local governments would manage the influx of visitors during the pandemic.
In a letter to the Premier, Ms Mettam said in the City of Busselton there was in excess of 15,000 rooms and 1,200 holiday homes (with capacity of six to eight people).
"I have spoken to front line workers at the Bunbury Health Campus who have expressed concern about their capacity to cope with anything more than the natural increase of residents returning to their homes at this time," she said.
Ms Mettam is seeking support from the Premier to provide restrictions on major roads through the WA Police and to implement a procedure to identify essential and non-essential travellers before the Easter break starts.
"It would be important that this process is put in place ahead of this Friday given the anticipated movement of visitors to this region ahead of Easter and in light of the effective shift towards home schooling and the school holidays," she said.
