The first interim measuring post was set at 2016, and Belmont and Claremont were the only councils to achieve their targets. Stirling had by far the biggest task. Asked to provide a whopping 10,000 new homes, it made a valiant effort, providing just over 7000. The majority of severely underperforming councils were in the outer frameworks. In the south, Serpentine Jarrahdale and Murray made zero progress, providing no new net infill dwellings (Waroona didn't have an infill target, but also added no new dwellings). In the north-east, Mundaring made zero progress, and Swan and Kalamunda councils made slight progress.

Shire of Murray president David Bolt said his council understood it had to prepare for significant growth over the coming years, with the state predicting an almost 1000 per cent increase in dwellings around Pinjarra. “We’ve got an activity centre plan that’s before the government for Pinjarra at the moment and we’re waiting for that to be advertised," he said. “That will give us some guidelines in terms of the overall scope of Pinjarra. We have a pretty good idea of how to map that out.” Waroona Mayor Mike Walmsley was unconcerned that planners 150 kilometres north of his office were envisioning Waroona to grow by 350 per cent, effectively into a suburb of Perth, by 2050. They just put a big circle around Perth, which happened to include us. Waroona mayor Mike Walmsley

“We aren’t really planning for it and we don’t feel it will happen here. “Waroona is a rural town and we don’t want to destroy that character. Most people live out here because they like the quiet.” Market forces at work Perth property analytics and forecasting specialist Gavin Hegney said the market had faced a headwind since the end of the mining boom in 2014.

Population growth and demand for new property had both slowed, taking the pressure off councils to stimulate new development, particularly the outer councils. "Really, there’s no point developing outlying areas when they’re struggling to sell what they've got already," he said. Loading "Over the course of time, however, we will see some catch up as markets recover. "Also, councils are supposed to review their town

planning schemes every five years, so change happens perhaps a bit slower in reality than the targets suggest that it should; it’s far more dictated by market forces than targets on a page." The active part of the market over the past four years had been the first-home buyer and downsizer markets. "Unless a location caters for one of those two markets we haven’t seen that need for development," he said. He said Claremont had likely exceeded its target thanks to redevelopment around the football oval, because of the local shopping and recreation amenities and a strong downsizing market. Belmont had likely benefited from its closeness to the city, the new stadium and the improvements in local roads, the airport and Belmont Forum.

"That council has also been saying to the market over the last decade that it's well and truly open for business, encouraging development with factors including the town planning scheme," he said. About 1.4 million people are expected to make Perth home over the next 30 years. Credit:Fairfax Media Competing tensions The already highly urbanised North-West councils, Joondalup and Wanneroo, while underperforming against the 2016 targets, have made attempts to get started. Joondalup created a Housing Opportunity Areas plan to rezone portions of 10 suburbs to shoehorn in more dwellings, but faced strident resident opposition to a couple of these plans.

Loading Amid concerns about the quality of community consultations the council had done, the state government instructed Joondalup to go back to the drawing board. It has since appointed external consultants to help develop a better planning framework. Wanneroo is conscious of the pressure to accomodate nearly three-quarters of the north-west's population growth, creating infill in established areas, building new communities along the northern coast and looking at areas in east Wanneroo to spread to. “It’s not coming as a surprise to Wanneroo, because this area has been on the books for decades so we’ve been able to plan for it," said Mayor Tracey Roberts.

“Because of the growth it’s important to ensure that the more established areas are not left behind as the new areas are established, so we’re still doing renewal, we’re still looking after those areas as well as literally trying to create communities out of sand dunes." Sign up to WA Today's 'News Update' newsletter to receive each instalment of the Big Perth series delivered to your inbox. “We are designing a lot of open spaces, green spaces and facilities and services, programmes. The last thing you want to do is displace other residents from where they’ve chosen to live for years and then they feel unhappy with their location because of what’s now been built. "And in doing that you learn all the time how to create a community, how to engage, how you want people talking to each other, you don’t want dormitory suburbs where people come in from work, open the garage door, door goes up, closes the door, and you don’t know your neighbours." Big job ahead

Of the 800,000 new homes expected to be needed in Perth by 2050, planners hope 53 per cent will be infill development, limiting urban sprawl to 47 per cent. But every region has varying targets. Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage director general Gail McGowan said it was not especially worrying to the government that some councils languished so far behind. “It is important to recognise that this is a long term plan over decades, and as we know our most recent overall infill figures have gone up to 41 per cent on the back of quite an intense period,” Ms McGowan said. “We expect the figures to fluctuate and that’s what is happening now.”