The state government has forecast more than 100,000 new homes will be completed across Western Australia in the next four years, and a similar number will be under construction, with greenfield suburbs as well as inner-city areas under the spotlight in a bid to increase supply.

Prithvi Shiva Kumar and his family felt the strain of Perth’s low housing supply firsthand, spending months searching for a place to call their own after moving from Scotland in mid-2025.

Skyrocketing housing costs paired with constrained supply and a cost-of-living crisis made finding somewhere suitable near-impossible.

“We were renting in Alkimos and looking in suburbs like Yanchep – it is a crazy market at the moment with plenty of competition and we just weren’t getting anything,” Kumar said.

“Applying for housing on a visa has also been a challenge – we were OK to buy something already established, but we weren’t allowed to, and we also were unable to access any first-home buyer or stamp duty concessions.”

Their search turned towards vacant blocks of land in some of the city’s greenfield areas.

While the family briefly considered an apartment, they decided they wanted a backyard for their four-year-old daughter Aadhya, and that the apartments on offer were not worth the cost for their size.

Then, the East Wanneroo District Structure Plan was approved by the WA Planning Commission in August 2025.

Kumar said they had submitted an application for one of the first blocks but missed out due to demand.

But in stage two they were successful, snagging one of 128 lots to get a title issued within the Stocklands Grevillia estate less than 12 months after early works commenced.

Stockland has become the first major developer to deliver housing in East Wanneroo, with the first residents expected to move in from mid-2027.

The plan guides the urbanisation of 8300 hectares across Perth’s northern suburbs and will ultimately support 50,000 homes, and 150,000 residents.

Stockland WA development general manager Col Dutton said demand for housing across WA continued to hit records.

“It is critical that we are working to meet demand to ensure WA homeowners have access to quality housing,” he said.

“As Stockland’s eighth community in Perth’s northern corridor, Grevillea forms part of our vision for Perth’s north.”

City of Wanneroo mayor Linda Aitken said the region was set to become one of Perth’s most significant urban growth areas over the next 50 years.

“Over the past decade, we’ve seen remarkable growth along our northern coastline in communities such as Alkimos and Yanchep. East Wanneroo is poised to follow a similar path,” she said.

That northern corridor is one of Perth’s most significant growth areas, according to Housing Minister John Carey.

“We know that unlocking more land for development, whether that is infill or greenfield development, will ensure more Western Australians can access housing,” he said.

“The latest ABS figures show home completions are up 10.8 per cent in WA – bucking the national trend, which saw a 0.4 per cent decline.”

Figures released in parliament from the Department of Treasury’s housing supply unit show that in the 2025-26 financial year, 23,234 dwellings were commenced and 24,732 were completed.

Of the developments where construction was commenced, nearly 19,472 were detached dwellings – up 10.3 per cent on the previous year – and 4751 were multi-residential including villas, townhouses and units, an increase of nearly 41 per cent.

Commencements and completions are forecast to grow to average around 26,000 homes over the next four years.

The state government is also undertaking significant reform to the Residential Design Codes to accelerate the supply of housing by enabling more lots to be subdivided, cutting red tape, reducing approvals timeframe and improving infill.

Overall, more than 100,000 homes will be completed between the 2026-27 and 2029-30 financial years according to the state government, and around the same number will be commenced.

There is likely overlap between the two data sets, meaning the final total of finished homes is not yet clear.

The City of Perth also has a plan to increase inner-city living, supporting the “emergence of residential neighbourhoods across the city centre”, with a focus on King Street, Pier Street, Irwin Street, and Queen Street, as listed in its Towards 2036 and Beyond report.

They are hoping to reach 55,000 residents by 2036 and 90,000 by 2050.

Treasurer Rita Saffioti said the state had a strong housing supply pipeline, with dwelling commencements at their highest level in more than four years.

“This means more homes are on the way for Western Australian families and will support more jobs across our growing construction workforce,” she said.

A state government spokesperson said WA had experienced record population growth of 400,000 since 2019, placing significant pressure on the housing market.

“Our most recent state budget includes a record $4.7 billion of new investment in housing and homelessness measures, taking our investment to an historic $10.8 billion since 2021,” they said.

“Through this investment, we’re directly addressing challenges to housing delivery across WA.

“We’ve increased our Housing Enabling Infrastructure Fund to $655 million to unlock land in metro and regional WA, as well as around key Metronet station precincts.

“Keystart’s $250 million pre-sale guarantee is also supporting more medium and high-density development by addressing financial barriers to delivering higher density housing developments and is expected to unlock around 1200 new apartments and townhouses.”