30 July 2025 – KIM MACDONALD

There’s not a lot of lots

Property stalwart says infill, not sprawl, will fix WA’s housing crisis

Developers have 20,000 fewer residential lots with condition- al approval than a decade ago, prompting calls for a focus on infill to help accommodate a booming population that has grown by 400,000 people over the same period.

The worrying trend shows that while there was a 7 per cent increase in developer’s residential lots in the March quarter- to 63,602 blocks it was still substantially below the number held in stock in 2015.

James Limnios, managing director of Limnios Property Group, labelled it a “famine” in new housing lots, and called for greater focus on infill housing to address the housing crisis.

Yet State Government statis- tics show infill is currently running at only 34 per cent well below the 47 per cent required under its own strategy.

“A decade ago, there were 83.833 residential lots with conditional approval held by developers in the State, or more than 20,000 higher than compared to now,” Mr Limnios said.

“This shortage of lots held by developers comes during a time when the State is experiencing one of its worst housing crises on record.

“We have a surging population rate, with the population of Western Australia now more than 400,000 people higher than back in 2015.

“Perth is running out of available-for-residential development in the urban fringe after years of frenetic housing developments in the outer suburbs, which has exhausted the supply of lots in these areas.

“We urgently need to move away from the reliance on urban sprawl to help solve our housing crisis.”

Mr Limnios called for a focus on infill housing in central locations, such as near McIver railway station in East Perth.

The real estate agent said he did not own land in the precinct.

Speaking from Greece yesterday, he reiterated his previous calls to sink the railway line at McIver train station, claiming that sinking the rail- way at Northbridge in 2013 addressed only half the city’s physical and psychological divide.

“The railway line has divided the city for over a century and the sinking of the line in Northbridge has only re- moved half of this wall,” he said.

Mr Limnios said the solution was not necessarily high- rise apartment complexes, given there was a shortage of tier-one builders in WA capable of handling such big projects.

Instead, land around McIver station would be better utilised for medium-density complexes that could engage smaller builders, who currently have the capacity to take on new projects.

“We need to open up opportunities for small-to-medium builders-we’ve got plenty of those,” he said.

“That means, projects with 10 townhouses, or 20 to 50 apartments, or a row of town- houses. We need diversity.”

Mr Limnios said that if successive governments since 2011 had adhered to the 47 per cent infill target, the State would not have such a dire housing shortage.

The WA Planning Commission’s Urban Growth Monitor report said the net infill rate was approximately 34 per cent in 2023, up from 31 per cent in 2022.

Almost three-quarters of all infill dwellings built comprised single dwelling developments, including duplexes and triplexes.

The figure is substantially higher than the average of 57 per cent single dwelling infill development for the peri- od from 2011 to 2023.

The 47 per cent infill target refers to the State Government’s goal for Perth and Peel to achieve nearly half of new dwelling construction in existing urban areas by 2050, as part of the Perth and Peel @ 3.5 million plan.

“In particular, encouraging small- er boutique builders and developers through a range of incentives by the State Government could quickly result in a major increase in low-density and affordable housing in these areas,” Mr Limnios said.

We urgently need to move away from the reliance on urban sprawl to help solve our housing crisis.