Twenty million dollars is back on the table for infill apartment projects. The genuinely new part of this round is buried in the third dot point.

Applications for Streams 1 and 2 of Western Australia’s Infrastructure Development Fund reopened on 3 August 2026, with up to $20 million available for apartment projects in targeted infill locations. Applications close on 30 June 2027, or earlier if the money runs out. The fund exists to cover headworks costs, meaning the connection and contribution charges payable to Water Corporation and Western Power. New to this round, projects approved through a Development Assessment Panel or the Significant Development Assessment Pathway can also claim back their application fees once construction is complete.

That last change is the one worth reading twice.

What the two streams actually do

Stream 1 is the Targeted Apartment Rebate. It offers a rebate of up to $10,000 per multiple dwelling toward water, wastewater and electricity connection and contribution costs.

The money never touches the developer’s account. It is paid directly to Water Corporation or Western Power on the applicant’s behalf, and the department has been explicit that invoices already settled by the developer cannot be reimbursed. Timing of the application therefore matters more than most people assume.

Stream 2 is Precinct Infrastructure, previously badged as Unlocking Infill Precincts. It works on a different logic. Rather than a rebate attached to dwellings, it funds network upgrades at precinct scale where a water, wastewater or electricity constraint is holding back development across an area rather than a single site. Applications are assessed on a business case, and proposals covering one site only have historically been ruled out.

A third stream covering regional key worker and community accommodation is not part of this reopening.

The approval fee change is not small

Until now, the fund covered utility connection costs and nothing else. Allowing developers to recoup Development Assessment Panel and Significant Development Pathway application fees once construction finishes brings a second, quite different cost bucket inside the tent. The government has attributed the change to feedback from industry.

The numbers explain why industry pushed for it.

DAP fees are set by regulation and scale with project value. As at 1 July 2026, a DAP application for a development valued between $20 million and $50 million attracts a fee of $12,129. Below $2 million it is $5,612. Above $50 million it rises to $17,524.

The Significant Development Pathway, created under Part 11B of the Planning and Development Act 2005, is an order of magnitude more expensive. It is an optional pathway open to projects valued at $20 million or more in the Perth and Peel regions, and $5 million or more elsewhere in the state, with the Western Australian Planning Commission as decision maker. Under the published fee notice, an application for a development valued between $20 million and $50 million carries a fee of $45,911. Above $50 million it is $67,690. Design review fees sit on top of that.

For a developer weighing which approval pathway to use, a refundable fee changes the arithmetic. The catch is in the wording. Reimbursement comes once construction is complete, not on approval. The fee still has to be funded at lodgement and carried through the entire build, which means the change improves the cash flow profile of the project rather than reducing what it costs to get to a start.

Where the money applies

Eligibility for both streams is geographic. Projects must sit within the central sub region of the Perth metropolitan area, within one kilometre of a train station including METRONET station precincts, within one kilometre of a strategic, secondary or district activity centre as defined by State Planning Policy 4.2, within one kilometre of the Bunbury CBD, or on a Housing Diversity Pipeline site.

Stream 1 is limited to multiple dwellings in a stacked configuration. Other uses can form part of the development up to 25 per cent of net lettable area, and where apartments make up less than 75 per cent, funding may be scaled back on a pro rata basis. Purpose built specialist disability accommodation delivered by a registered NDIS provider has been eligible since an earlier round.

There are delivery conditions attached. Projects that receive funding are required to commence within two years of approval and complete construction within four years, with a discretionary extension of 12 months available for unforeseen delays. Stream 1 has also required that development approval is already in hand and that work has not substantially commenced.

Why headworks are the pinch point

Departmental data explains why the state keeps returning to this particular lever.

The most recent Urban Growth Monitor, published by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage in April 2026, records 16,980 dwellings built across the Perth and Peel regions in 2024. Of those, 7,100 were in infill areas and 9,880 in greenfield areas. Net infill, once demolitions are subtracted, came to 6,240 dwellings. The net infill rate reached roughly 39 per cent, up from 34 per cent the year before.

The composition tells you more than the headline rate. Single dwellings made up 64 per cent of all infill development in 2024, above the long term average of 55 per cent for the period since 2011. Large scale projects yielding more than 50 dwellings per lot accounted for 23 per cent, up sharply from seven per cent in 2022.

Read together, those figures say that a large share of what WA counts as infill is still knockdown rebuild and small lot subdivision. Apartments are the part of the market that struggles most with feasibility, and servicing charges are one of the reasons a site with an approval on it can sit untouched for years.

What it changes on the ground

For builders, the practical read is about where work is likely to appear, and when.

The fund does not build anything. It removes a line item from a feasibility. On a 100 apartment project, $10,000 per dwelling is $1 million against connection charges the developer would otherwise carry. That is meaningful where the numbers are close. It is not, on its own, the difference between a scheme that stacks up and one that does not.

The more useful signal is locational. Every eligible site sits near a station or an activity centre. If this round is drawn down as intended, the multi residential work it supports will cluster in the same places: METRONET station precincts, the central sub region, and the district and secondary centres named in State Planning Policy 4.2. For builders and trades working in apartments and larger multi residential product, that is a reasonable map of where tenders are likely to originate over the next 18 months.

There is also a sequencing point that is easy to miss. Because Stream 1 pays the utility provider directly and will not reimburse invoices already settled, the application has to be in before the connection costs are paid. Teams that move fast on approvals and deal with servicing later will find the money gone. That is a project programming problem as much as a funding one, and it is exactly the kind of detail that falls into the gap between the development manager and the site team.

The limits worth naming

Twenty million dollars is available in this round. The fund itself is $120 million, increased from $80 million at the 2026 to 2027 State Budget with a matching Commonwealth contribution. Previous Stream 1 rounds have allocated between roughly $8 million and $17 million at a time across 15 to 22 projects, which suggests this round will be competitive and may well close before June 2027.

At the time of writing, the departmental fund page still displayed the previous round as closed, with July 2025 guidelines attached. Anyone preparing an application should confirm the current guidelines and eligibility criteria before committing time to a lodgement, particularly around the new fee reimbursement, which does not appear in the earlier documents.

The pattern behind it

The approach is becoming familiar across the country. Governments have worked through most of the easy planning levers and are now moving to the cost side of the ledger, paying down the charges that sit between an approval and a start. WA has been at this longer than most, through this fund, through the Housing Enabling Infrastructure Fund, and through nominal land transfers for key worker housing in the regions.

Whether it moves the numbers depends on things the fund cannot reach. Apartment projects in Perth are constrained by builder capacity, finance and presales at least as much as by servicing costs. Taking $10,000 a dwelling off the top helps. It does not put a builder on site.

For anyone already holding an approval on an eligible site, though, the arithmetic is simple enough. The money is there until 30 June 2027 or until it is gone, and one of those two things is likely to happen sooner than the other.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

WA Government Unlocks Four Development Sites, With 200+ Lots Aimed at Easing Perth’s Housing Crunch

WA Government Sells Crown Land for $1 to Unlock 140 Key Worker Homes in Geraldton

About The Good Builder

The Good Builder covers the Australian construction industry from the builder’s perspective. For more industry news, analysis and resources, visit thegoodbuilder.com.au or subscribe to The Good Builder Podcast.

General information only. This article does not constitute legal, financial or professional advice. Readers should seek independent guidance relevant to their specific circumstances before making decisions based on this content. Figures cited are drawn from the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage, the Planning and Development (Development Assessment Panels) Regulations 2011 and the Planning and Development (Part 11B Fees) Notice, and are current as at 3 August 2026.

Author: TGB Editorial