As a property developer in Western Australia, your primary objective is always to maximise the viability and yield of your land. In a shifting Perth market where inner-suburban space is at a premium and infill targets are tightening, a standard single-purpose residential or commercial build isn’t always the most profitable move. 

That’s why more and more investors are turning their attention to mixed-use development.

By blending commercial assets and residential properties into a single footprint, you effectively diversify your risk, tap into multiple revenue streams and unlock higher density allowances. Keep in mind, though, that these projects are inherently more complex than a standard multi-unit build. 

If you’re trying to figure out whether a mixed-asset project is the right fit for your portfolio, we’ll break down the financial, design and legal realities of building mixed-use in WA. 

What Counts as Mixed Use in Western Australia?

In the WA planning framework, a mixed-use project is a single building or precinct that combines residential spaces with non-residential uses like retail, offices, medical suites or hospitality venues. 

One of the most common iterations we see is the classic “vertical” split: retail or food and beverage on the ground floor, commercial offices on the first floor and residential apartments on the upper levels. Mixed-use doesn’t require a residential component; it also includes purely commercial asset combinations, such as an office paired with hospitality space or a retail strip integrated with medical suites. 

The goal is to set up a self-sustaining ecosystem. Residential tenants act like a built-in customer base for the commercial spaces downstairs, while the ground-floor amenities make the residential apartments attractive to potential buyers or renters. 

How to Check If Your Site Has Mixed Use Zoning

Before you invest any money into concept designs or engineering work, you need to check whether your land actually allows for multi-asset builds. Local government frameworks dictate exactly what can be built, where it can go and how high it can climb. 

To determine whether your site is eligible, you need to navigate through two layers of planning policy:

1. Local Planning Schemes (LPS): Every local government area (LGA) has its own Local Planning Scheme. You need to look up your site’s specific zone designation. Look for terms like mixed use, local centre, commercial or urban corridor.
2. The Residential Design Codes (R-Codes): Western Australia’s Residential Design Codes control the design parameters for apartments and mixed-asset buildings. The R-Codes will set the maximum plot ratio, building height limits, boundary setbacks and open space requirements based on the site’s density coding (such as R60, R80 or higher). 

If your site currently sits under a purely residential or commercial code, you’d need to apply for a scheme amendment or structure plan modification. This is a lengthy, high-risk process that needs a water tight business case to present to the local council or a Development Assessment Panel (DAP). 

Key Mixed Use Design & Architecture Principles

When it comes to building a successful multi-asset property, form must follow function (and more importantly, it needs to be financially viable). Smart mixed use design is all about balancing the competing needs of commercial tenants who want visibility and foot traffic with residential occupants, who want privacy, security and peace. 

When designing the architecture mixed use projects need, our design and construction teams focus on three non-negotiable areas:

Ground floor activation

Your ground floor needs to engage the streetscape and invite the community in. This means wide glass shopfronts, generous ceiling heights (usually bigger than 4 metres to accommodate commercial services) and clear signage zones. If the ground floor feels dead or uninviting, your commercial tenancies will struggle to attract quality occupants, dragging down the value of the entire asset. 

Access considerations

Residential and commercial users should share as little space as possible. A well-designed building will feature fully separate lobbies, secure lift access solely for residents and segregated parking areas. You'll also need to plan for back-of-house logistics early on. Everything from commercial deliveries and waste management to servicing and operational access needs to work without disrupting residents. 

Massing, materials & transitions

The building needs to transition naturally between the commercial hub on the street to the residential sanctuary above. This needs strategic massing (stepping the building back on upper levels to protect the privacy of neighbours and residents. Material selection is equally crucial: you need commercial-grade acoustic insulation in the floors and ceilings to completely block out the sound of downstairs foot traffic, music or machinery from the spaces above. 

How Mixed Use Strata Schemes Work in WA

The legal architecture of multi-asset buildings is just as complex as their physical. In Western Australia, managing a building that houses both business owners and residential tenants requires a clear understanding of the Strata Titles Amendment Act 2018. 

Can you strata-title a mixed use building?

Yes, you absolutely can. Strata-titling allows you to divide the building into individual lots (e.g., three ground-floor retail shops and twelve upper-level apartments) that can be sold off to separate buyers or maintained individually within your portfolio. 

Commercial vs residential lots in one scheme

Operating both commercial and residential lots in a single strata scheme can lead to operational friction if not structured properly from day one. Commercial owners want long opening hours, prominent external signage and high customer turnover, while residential owners want quiet evenings and restricted access. 

To avoid any ongoing disputes within the strata company, your by-laws need to be meticulously tailored. These by-laws need to clearly define operational rules, trading hours, noise limits and permitted uses for the commercial lots. 

Common property considerations

Who pays to fix the elevator if it breaks? Who pays for electricity in shared hallways? In a mixed scheme, expenses need to be calculated fairly via unit entitlements. 

If the residential tenants are the only ones using the upper-level amenities, the commercial owners shouldn’t be fitted with the maintenance bill. On the other hand, the utility costs of commercial common areas need to be properly separated from residential strata levies. 

Community title as an alternative

For larger, multi-building precincts, the Community Titles Act 2018 offers an excellent alternative to standard strata. A community title allows you to split a single parcel of land into up to three tiers of sub-schemes. This means you can create a standalone commercial sub-scheme and a separate residential sub-scheme, each with its own management statement and insurance policy, sitting under a community umbrella corporation. 

What Developers Should Know About Mixed Use Commercial Property Insurance

Insurance for a mixed-asset building is very different from a standard residential build. Crucially, standard builder’s risk or basic landlord insurance just won’t cut it for mixed use assets. Because these developments feature publicly accessible spaces, insurers assess and underwrite them under a completely different risk framework. 

While ongoing insurance costs are generally higher due to public liability exposures and varied tenant uses, clever design can actually mitigate these expenses. Proactive mixed use design (like high-grade fire separation, isolated commercial service lines and secure physical zoning) can dramatically reduce your risk profile and lower your annual premiums. 

The baseline premiums will always depend heavily on the type of commercial tenants in your building:

• Low-risk tenants: Professional offices, medical practices or boutique retail outlets carry a lower risk profile, resulting in more manageable insurance premiums. 
• High-risk tenants: Cafes, restaurants or bars that use deep fryers, open flames and commercial exhaust systems introduce a significantly higher fire risk. They also increase public liability exposure due to liquor licensing and high patron numbers. 

Is Mixed Use Development The Right Call?

To determine if a mixed-asset project is the right move for your site, you need to move past the conceptual excitement and look strictly at the operational and physical realities. Before drawing up any plans, every developer needs to work through a checklist:

• Site size & configuration: Does your block meet the minimum area size required for success? Mixed-use developments require a larger, highly strategic footprint to comfortably accommodate dual access, commercial loading zones and separate waste management layouts. 
• Local zoning permissions: Does the current mixed use zoning framework support your vision, or will it require a lengthy, high-risk council amendment scheme? 
• Nearby commercial vacancy rates: Is there genuine local demand for retail, medical or office suites? Is the surrounding commercial market oversaturated?
• Parking feasibility: Can the site physically and financially support the strict parking ratios mandated for both residential occupants and commercial customers?
• Risk appetite & management capacity: Multi-asset buildings aren’t “set-and-forget” investments. They demand much more involved ongoing management, lease negotiation and operational oversight than your standard residential build. 
• Exit strategy: What’s your end-game? You need to decide early whether you intend to sell all lots post-construction, hold the whole development or execute a partial exit via only holding strata-titled commercial lots.

How Novus Projects Approaches Mixed Use Development

At Novus Projects, we don’t just look at construction through an architectural and design lens. We look at it from development, investment and risk-mitigation perspectives, too. 

That’s why we provide a single point of accountability from early site planning all the way through to final handover. Dealing with separate consultants, residential builders and commercial contractors creates dangerous gaps in communication where budgets can blow out. 

We bring a deep, working knowledge of subdivisions and WA zoning frameworks, paired with proven, hands-on expertise in both residential and commercial development. Financial oversight is important to us, too. If the numbers don’t protect your margin, we’ll refine our strategy until they do. 

Our family-owned business has over 30 years of construction heritage in Western Australia, giving us the extensive local knowledge necessary to navigate Perth’s councils, DAPs and strata complexities. We deliver this through our coordinated process from feasibility to handover:

1. Feasibility: We start with a detailed site feasibility assessment, checking zoning rules, land dimensions, slope, access and potential unit yield against your overarching investment and exit strategy. 
2. Design: Our team develops functional, compliant layouts that optimise land use, solar orientation and shared spaces before preparing a detailed project cost assessment to establish a clearly defined budget range. 
3. Approvals: With design and budget confirmed, we prepare and submit all documentation required for council and regulatory approval, as well as manage all communications with authorities to streamline the Development Application (DA) process. 
4. Construction: We schedule trades and oversee site operations to deliver the project according to specifications, while simultaneously coordinating surveyors, engineers and utility connections to finalise the subdivision and certify the lots for legal occupancy.

If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn't work for us. We’re a development partner, not just a builder; we want your asset to be set up for maximum long-term yield. 

Want to run a feasibility assessment on your site? Let’s talk about what’s possible. Call Leo on 0418 770 370 or the head office at 9240 6020 and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible!