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| Join the crowd: Perth population tipped to hit three million. Picture: Lee Griffith/The West Australian |
Perth will overtake Brisbane to become Australia's third biggest city in 15 years, population projections reveal.
Three million people are expected to call Perth home by 2028, putting fresh pressure on the city's infrastructure and housing supply to keep pace with the growth.
The capital's swelling population will almost double WA's total population from 2.4 million people to 4.7 million by 2040.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the nation's population is growing faster than previously thought.
Five years ago it had projected Australia's population could get as high as 62.2 million by 2101 but it has revised that to 70 million.
It is based on the highest population growth scenario of women having two babies and annual migration of almost 280,000 a year. Using its mid-range growth assumptions, the ABS forecasts the population will double to 46 million by 2075.
Under the same medium scenario, Perth's current population of 1.9 million is tipped to rise to three million by 2028 and pass Brisbane.
What makes Perth's rapid population increase even more staggering is that it will overtake Brisbane in just 15 years, even though the Queensland metropolis will have the second fastest growth rate of any capital city in the country.
Curtin University professor of sustainability Peter Newman said Perth should be able to absorb an extra 1.1 million people if it got the infrastructure right.
“We will cope with it if we plan for it,” he said. “Melbourne and Sydney are exporting people to Brisbane and Perth, but we’re just getting more of them.”
He advocates future housing development in Perth to focus on 8-10 storey-high buildings in sub-centres based around new and existing train stations.
Professor Newman said Perth was poised to become a global city as it becomes the headquarters for energy and mining giants in the region, which would provide employment.
But it was also critical to attract jobs in the “knowledge economy” such as software developers and university researchers so the city was not just relying on the resources industry.
Urban Development Institute Association WA chief executive Debra Goostrey said industry and government were closely monitoring housing supply to prevent a repeat of last decade’s squeeze that drove up property prices.
While new land was being released, Ms Goostrey said there were emerging signs of some skilled labour shortages that could slow down construction.
She also said governments needed to keep up infrastructure investment to accommodate the swelling population.
“It definitely has it challenges but for people living in Perth this is a fantastic opportunity to build a very vibrant city that people want to come and live in,” Ms Goostrey said.
