Tim Willing forecasts a shift from houses to apartment living

Article by Nadia Budihardjo | Business News

Developer Tim Willing has called out Perth property buyers as being stuck in the past, but forecasts a shift away from expectations of larger blocks and big homes.

Speaking at a Perth Design Week event on Friday, Mr Willing said there had been a huge change in the past decade, particularly on the importance of quality design.

However, he said there was still some resistance.

“There’s a lot of thinking rooted in the past, really, and it comes back to a whole thought process around affordability and how that’s predicated in Australia, largely, on a large, four-bedroom home on a big block,” Mr Willing said.

“That thinking is probably going to evolve, and I think there’s still a lot of resistance.

“It’s our job as developers or as architects to put out propositions that really create places that people desire and feel that it’s going to meet their lifestyle.”

Mr Willing said there had been a huge change in the past 10 to 15 years.

“There’s been a lot of change post Covid as well, in terms of people have started to think, ‘Gosh, I love travelling. I want to be away [but] I still want to live in the area that I’ve brought my children up in’,” he said.

“They are looking to alternative ways to live … they’re going and they’re staying in beautiful resorts and lovely hotels. They’ve got a high design ethos and there’s a certain romance to that, that when people are looking to capture when they buy something.”

Hillam Architects principal and fellow panel member David Hillam agreed, but said the idea of living closely in an apartment building, instead of in suburban blocks, was concerning for some people.

“There’s no doubt that there’s resistance,” he said.

“The people that are in the suburbs that are buying into the buildings that we’re designing are clearly there in support.

“But there’s no doubt that there’s people that might be directly impacted, or they have fear of what the impact is going to be.

“The industry needs to continue to get better. I believe that people who are looking at buying an apartment, they should understand where they’re buying it from, and what the reputation of that developer is.”

H-U development director Corey Scidone, also on the panel, said the resistance to high rise was because there was too big of a jump for Perth, which lacked medium-level density across the city.

Mr Scidone said Perth’s urban sprawl also added to some of the issues in developing density.

“It’s well understood that Western Australia is a very car-dependent city, and that’s driven by a lot of different factors,” he said.

“Not that there’s no point building further out, but I think the proposition of it becomes a lot more insignificant because the benefit of living in the apartment is living in those fantastic urban zones where you’ve got to access all of those amenities.

“If you then start densifying our suburbs without densifying in the suburbs, you’re actually creating more of a problem because you’ve got more people living further than they need to travel more into our cars.

“That impact is actually different snowball effect.”