But Perth struggles to meet this new demand \u2013 the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage has set a target to deliver 47 per cent of all new dwellings in existing urban areas, however the actual rate is hovering around 30 per cent and mostly consists of high-density apartment development.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere remains a gap in the medium density space, which many call the missing middle,” Rowley says.<\/p>\n
Households on low incomes are particularly affected by a lack of housing diversity. The latest HIFG report indicates that even with WA experiencing an economic downturn, the subsequent falling rents and house prices have not filtered through to households on lower incomes.<\/p>\n
The report shows that a Perth household on a very low income (around $43,000) would be able to afford a dwelling priced at $216,300 if they were to spend only 30 per cent of their income on repayments. This is based on the assumption that the household is first able to save a 10 per cent deposit.<\/p>\n
A driving factor behind housing affordability is the imbalance between income and house prices, which is influenced in part by a lack of housing options.<\/p>\n
\u201cHousing stock is still dominated by large detached homes. Most of what we see at the moment in the infill space is a single house on a large lot of land that is subdivided into two and two new, large houses built, so you\u2019re only getting an increase of one dwelling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith such piecemeal infill development there are no changes to amenity and the replacement dwellings are often more expensive than the original.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“This type of development doesn\u2019t increase diversity or the range of opportunities that people can afford,\u201d Rowley says.<\/p>\n
When delivered at scale, urban infill can provide a range of housing options across the price spectrum, but it often faces fierce opposition by communities, who fear urban infill will deplete green spaces and stamp out a suburb\u2019s character.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is always a problem when you\u2019re developing in places where people already live. There is always opposition from the public because people don\u2019t like change. People are afraid development will increase traffic and affect the value of their property,\u201d Rowley says.<\/p>\n
He explains that local government and planning developers need to effectively engage with the public during initial stages of infill proposals to better communicate their vision and approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important that local government and the development industry work together to allay the fears of residents about parking, congestion and property prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Change is always difficult, but it\u2019s clear that if we desire equal access to a place we can call \u2018home\u2019, we need to re-evaluate the spaces we occupy. Urban infill can be a way to achieve our housing dreams and, when done well, can improve the quality and value of areas, and have a positive and lasting impact on community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Infill development can deliver more diverse and affordable housing options for all household types, from young adults looking to move out of home, to older Australians looking to downsize.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4182,"featured_media":6903,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,3],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-6902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-innovation-and-law","category-campus-and-global-community"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"Business at Curtin","content":"
This series of articles highlights the impactful research taking place at Curtin Business School and Curtin Law School.<\/p>\n
In 2018, we explore how partnerships between universities and organisations from all sectors of the economy are solving today’s pressing business challenges and improving organisational agility.<\/p>\n
See all articles<\/a><\/p>\n","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/City1584x420-1000x500.jpg","author_meta":{"first_name":"Zoe","last_name":"Taylor","display_name":"Zoe Taylor"},"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 11:01:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6902"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=6902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}