Perth’s northern satellite city of Joondalup is heralding a period of record investment. Commercial projects worth $1 billion are under way or recently  completed. Among the mooted projects are a major mixed-use city centre development, as well as retail, health and education projects.

City of Joondalup Mayor Troy Pickard said the council’s focus was now on increasing housing density around shopping centres and public transport.

It is estimated the city will grow by 100,000 people over the next two decades.

Joondalup’s ongoing development is a vital coping mechanism for the increasingly congested city of Perth, which now stretches more than 130 coastal  kilometres from Yanchep in the northto Mandurah in the south.

Earlier this month the city named UK-based property firm Seven Capital the preferred developer of a mixed-use, 20,000-square-metre development in the heart of Joondalup, 25 kilometres north of Perth.

Seven already has operations in Australia because of its tie-up with the Stay-Well Hospitality Group.

The council hopes to lure the state government, which is looking to send 10,000 square metres of office space to Joondalup by 2018.

During the state election campaign the government announced its preferred office site was on state-owned land near Edith Cowan University.

However, Finance Minister Mike Nahan has confirmed he is prepared to look at the council’s alternative site.

Lend Lease is in the midst of a $300 million redevelopment of the Lakeside Joondalup shopping centre, which is co-owned by the company’s Australian Prime Property Fund Retail and the federal governments Future Fund. The 28,300-square-metre expansion will see Lakeside overtake Westfield’s Carousel centre as the largest retail complex in WA.

Perth’s northern suburbs are a hot spot for fly-in, fly-out resources workers, boosting local spending power.

The median household income in the City of Joondalup is $1780 per week, well above the WA average of $1415, according to the 2011 census.

New Masters and Bunnings hardware stores totalling $45 million in investment are also currently under construction.

Residential developers are fuelling development further north.

Listed developer Peet has sold about 900 lots of its Burns Beach estate north of Joondalup.

Perth apartment developer Finbar has sold out its 43-unit, $14.6 million development in nearby Currambine. UK firm Seven Capital and the City of Joondalup are planning a mixed-use centre.