WA Plots 49 Affordable Homes at New Station

Plans have been filed for 49 townhouses and apartments for ‘lazy land’ at a new Metronet station precinct south-east of the Perth CBD by the WA Government.

The application has been lodged for the 8500sq m state-owned site at the new Nicholson Road Station precinct.

The homes in the project, dubbed Tulloch Way, would be in a mix of one, two and three-bedroom social and affordable homes on the Canning Vale site, 22km from the city centre.

The project would comprise 18 townhouses and 31 apartments, built to Silver Level Livable design standard.

The Nicholson Road Station is part of the Metronet Thornlie-Cockburn Link, which will be Perth’s first east-west cross-line connection.

Metronet said that the station could support up to 3100 journeys by 2031 and would cut the private vehicle peak-hour journey to the Perth CBD from an hour to 26 minutes. 

▲ Construction began on Nicholson Road Station in 2020 and the first trains are expected to run by the middle of next year.

WA housing minister John Carey said that the Tulloch Way project was a strategically located infill development and part of state plans to offer medium-density housing in central locations to support people on lower incomes with “ready access to jobs, services, transport and amenity”.

“We are utilising key Metronet precincts and unlocking lazy government land through the Housing Diversity Pipeline to maximise the potential of the land for social and affordable housing—including developments in Pier Street and Smith Street,” he said.

WA’s Metronet program aims to improve the state’s public transport network. The application for the Nicholson Road Station was filed in 2020, and work on it is under way.

In that DA it identified that land next to the station could be used for residential, given that the precinct is 45ha and all state-owned, and that this could allow increased density and infill of existing residential areas within walking distance of the station.

WA has been proactive in delivering social and affordable housing, including plans to revamp a former public housing site at Highgate into 109 build-to-rent apartments, and a 1000-home quarry conversion project with one in seven homes dedicated to social and affordable housing.