SOMETIMES WHEN WE REFER TO DEVELOPERS MANY PEOPLE THINK OF BIG CORPORATE ENTITIES BUT THERE ARE MANY OF US INVOLVED AT A FAR SMALLER SCALE
There are currently over seventy thousand lots with conditional approval from the WA Planning Commission wrapped up in 4,362 applications, which is an average of just over 16 lots per application. The interesting part is the comparison with those that obtained final approval in the March quarter, meaning that the development has finished and titles can be issued, where the number of lots per application was just over four.
It is often said that during the tough times it is only the larger professional developers that are active but there are a lot of one and two lot developments that are currently occurring, with the City of Stirling one of the most popular areas for this medium density style development. One of the theories is that post GFC with the erosion of retirement funds, we are seeing people realising the capital locked up in the land on which their family home sits. This can be in the form of “battle axe blocks” where the land is subdivided and one house is put behind the existing residence or the replacement of the existing house with units. Some of these are green title lots, but strata titles are also being used. In the March quarter this year strata comprised twenty eight percent of all lots approved, up from under ten percent during the same period in 2003.
Perth is changing, becoming denser with more people embracing unit and apartment living. In 1992 around seventy percent of lots were between 600 and 999 square metres, now seventy percent are less than five hundred square metres. Over the last two decades the median lot size has fallen by 282 square metres to 416 square metres.
These changes are delivering diversity in areas that previously had a very homogenous building stock. This has a huge range of benefits from aging in place to creating opportunities for first homebuyers to live close to family. Whilst this is being done retrospectively in older suburbs, we are finding increasing diversity in the housing stock in new master planned developments where there are entry level homes, larger homes on family sized blocks and opportunities for seniors. Whether it is in the newer suburbs or older areas, delivered by large or small developers, diversity of housing stock is essential for our growing population.