In 2024, Committee for Perth published the 2050 report in partnership with Scitech and futurist Dr Ben Hamer. Through this research ten priorities emerged, capturing the hopes and fears of over 1,400 Perth citizens including a significant proportion of young people. Urban sprawl and density with identity ranked as the second-highest priority, and it remains an issue keeping me, and our members, awake at night. It was brought into view again this week as I prepared for a presentation to Ngala about the trends and impacts for families in 2050, reminding me of the impact on life that density is causing, and will continue to cause, if we do not plan for our future differently.
At the Perth 2050 Summit in October 2025, UWA Demographer Amanda Davies shared that Perth’s population could reach 3.5 million not in 2050 as once forecast, but as early as 2039, eleven years sooner than predicted in 2012 by the Committee. Nicola Brischetto, Executive Director from the Property Council, spoke about Perth, already the longest city in the world at 152 km, and highlighting that it could stretch to an extraordinary 271 km within the next 25 years, breaking all records. Imagine the impact of this future! The commutes to work, to school and the time lost in cars. Earlier this year OpenAgent provided sobering information about commute times showing that a daily 30km commute could cost an individual $116,000 in fuel over a lifetime and consume two years and five months of their life sitting in traffic.
This brings me back to the urgent need for Perth, a city grappling with a housing crisis, to embrace density and to adopt a more ‘YIMBY’ mindset about the opportunity to live together in closer proximity. For every person living in inner Perth, there are three in Melbourne and 3.4 in Sydney. Greater density and mixed-use developments would concentrate diverse amenities and significantly increase the likelihood of Perth becoming a 15-minute city by 2050, where Perthites could access most of their daily needs — such as work, shopping, healthcare and leisure — within a short walk or bike ride from home. Another insight that emerged from the 2050 Summit was the demographic shift ahead: by 2050, 22% of the population will be over 65 years old, while our extended families will continue to shrink. Baby Boomers generally have 24–42 cousins, Gen Zs will grow up with just 4–8 cousins and Gen Beta, born between 2025 – 2039 are expected to have between 0–3 cousins. This provides a window into our future and highlights that we are standing at a crossroad of choice. Do we carry on without thinking of the long-term impacts on our health, our mental health, our children’s futures and the cost to community? Or do we stop, and together develop a vision and a decisive plan to set us on the right path? A plan that affords the permission to be bold and the audacity to be imaginative, pushing the boundaries of possibility. The time is now.
The Perth and Peel 3.5 million framework advocated for 47% of all new homes to be built through infill development, with most of these developments built around activity centres and urban corridors to maximise the benefits of Metronet. Yet today we are sitting at just approximately 34% because most of the new homes continue to be built on the fringes. There is an urgent need to move away from relying on urban sprawl to solve the housing crisis, and instead accelerate well-designed, well-located infill development. People talk of a cost-of-living crisis, but unless we act now, we could face a far more profound ‘cost of life crisis’, and inherit, as Dr Ben Hamer in the 2050 Report warned, a future designed for someone else.