Perth’s south is rapidly developing into a prime precinct for industrial property, with an abundance of activity in the area drawing in more occupiers and leading to a chronic lack of quality industrial land.

The area from Henderson down to East Rockingham has become increasingly significant due to the enormous amount of existing and proposed infrastructure, with this southern precinct attracting huge investment from government, national and international companies. It is consequently set for some major projects, particularly in new energy and defence.

One of the biggest projects is what has been dubbed H2Perth, a proposed hydrogen and ammonia production facility to be located on government land in the Rockingham Industrial Zone. If it is given the go ahead the $1 billion project would be built on around 130 hectares of vacant industrial land, commercially leased from the state government.

Meanwhile Tianqi Lithium has developed a lithium hydroxide plant in the Kwinana Industrial Area, which is Australia’s first fully-automated plant of its type and the first to produce battery grade lithium in commercial quantities. 

In Kwinana there is also a battery farm that produced the first big battery to be built in Western Australia, which was switched on in May, and the Kwinana Waste to Energy project is underway.

In defence, Perth’s southern precinct is home to shipbuilders, including Austal at the Henderson Shipyard, while a new port is predicted to be built at Naval Base in the early 2030s, along with other planned activity.

All of this action and activity has been drawing in more industrial users to Perth’s south looking to be situated in amongst it all. Indeed, users who have relationships with the companies undertaking these projects, as well as others, will need land to develop facilities within close proximity to the activity. 

The desire to be in this southern precinct is also amplified from the need to be close to existing gas, power, water and port infrastructure, as well as a skilled local residential workforce. 

The precinct is also more affordable than other areas of Perth’s industrial market, such as the East or even the North, where logistics users want to be located, close to the freight terminal at Kewdale.

The strong demand from occupiers in Perth’s southern precinct has led to a chronic shortage of land, with a number of subdivisions sold out and very few improved sites available for sale.

DevelopmentWA, the WA Government’s central land and development agency, is developing more land in its Orion Industrial Park at Henderson, which will bring 30 lots to the market in late 2023. The Government is also reportedly looking at developing additional land further south towards Hope Valley and Naval Base. But despite this, the shortage of land will remain for the foreseeable future.

In recent years we have seen the shortage of land in Perth’s southern precinct result in strengthening land values. Despite some land coming to the market in the future, we expect land values to keep rising due to the imbalance between supply and demand.

By Geoff Thomson