Perth Councils and Property Bodies Speak Out on Duplicate Image Chaos Hitting Planning and Housing Approvals

A growing backlog of development applications across Perth's inner suburbs is being partly attributed to a technical but costly problem: duplicate and mismatched images lodged in planning portals, forcing assessment officers to manually verify documentation before any decision can proceed. The issue has surfaced publicly in recent months as the City of Perth, the City of Stirling and the Western Australian Planning Commission field a surge in applications driven by Metronet corridor rezoning and AUKUS-linked housing demand near Henderson and Rockingham.

The timing is difficult. Western Australia's population growth — fuelled by interstate migration and an expanded skilled visa intake tied to resources and defence projects — has pushed dwelling approvals to levels not seen in over a decade. Any friction in the approvals pipeline compounds an already stretched housing supply. Industry figures are now pressing state and local government to fix the image-handling infrastructure before it becomes a systemic bottleneck.

What Officials and Industry Bodies Are Saying

The Western Australian Local Government Association has flagged the problem in internal working groups focused on the state's ePlanning digitalisation rollout, according to agendas published on its website. The association has been coordinating with the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage — which oversees the MidaS and DAP Online systems used for development assessment — to identify where duplicate file uploads are generating the most rework. The department has not yet released a public response to the specific image-duplication concerns as of July 4, 2026.

The Australian Institute of Architects' WA chapter has separately raised the issue with members, noting that applicants lodging via the state's online portals sometimes encounter system errors that cause image files to upload twice or attach to the wrong drawing set. The result, according to the institute's member communications, is that elevation drawings, site photos and shadow diagrams can appear mismatched against written descriptions — triggering requests for additional information that add weeks to assessment timelines. The institute has recommended members implement a manual file-naming protocol, tagging each image with the lot number, street address and drawing revision before upload.

At the local government level, the City of Vincent — which covers inner suburbs including Mount Hawthorn, Leederville and North Perth — confirmed in its June 2026 council meeting minutes that its development services team had received an elevated number of incomplete lodgements this financial year, with imagery issues cited among the contributing factors. The city did not attribute all delays to the duplicate-image problem specifically, but noted that incomplete submissions had extended average assessment times for straightforward single residential applications.

The Data Behind the Delays

Western Australia recorded 3,412 dwelling approvals in April 2026, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics building approvals release published in June 2026 — a figure that reflects sustained pressure on the planning system across Greater Perth. The Urban Development Institute of Australia's WA division has previously noted, in its 2025 housing pipeline report, that assessment timeframes for complex applications in growth corridors such as the Metronet precincts around Morley, Ellenbrook and Yanchep have grown materially over the past two years.

A planning consultant working across projects in Subiaco and the Burswood peninsula — speaking in general terms about the duplicate-image issue without referencing specific clients — described the problem as one that disproportionately affects medium-density and mixed-use proposals, where the documentation sets are large and the margin for file-management errors is higher. No direct quote is attributed here, as no on-record statement was provided for publication.

For applicants lodging plans right now, the practical guidance from both the AIA WA chapter and independent planning consultants is consistent: audit your image library before submission, confirm that each file references the correct lot and revision, and use the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage's pre-lodgement service — available at its Optima Centre office in Bentley — to catch errors before they enter the formal assessment queue. The department's pre-lodgement meetings are bookable online and are free for most residential applications under the residential design codes. Getting the paperwork right on the first attempt, rather than waiting for a request for additional information, can cut weeks off an approval timeline in a market where construction slots are already tight well into 2027.