One question remains. In an established area with little housing development compared to its urban fringe counterparts - where are all these children coming from? Experts said an influx of children in established areas was not unusual at all - in fact, it happens in most suburbs every 20 years or so. "It's called the family life cycle," University of Western Australia social geographer Linley Lutton said. "What happens is you have parents moving into the area, they have children, those children go right through school and then you typically wait quite a long time before houses can be released in the area by the elderly. "(Once that occurs), young people will move back into the area and the cycle will start again." Census figures showed the number of 25 to 34-year-olds residing in the western suburbs increased by around 18 per cent between 2006 and 2011. Real estate agent Adrian Abel, who has sold houses in the western suburbs for 11 years, agreed the demographics in the area were changing. "A lot of people that I'm selling for today are people that built their houses back in the 1950s," he said. "The people we're typically selling to have got children, so whilst there hasn't been a lot of infill or new development, there's been a lot more children moving into the area." Mr Abel also believed an increase in property prices over the past 15 years had made public schools in the western suburbs more appealing to home owners. The area is awash with prestigious private schools that charge yearly tuition fees of up to $25,000 per child. "People want to live in a good area but can't necessarily afford private school fees and if they've already paid more than $1 million to buy their house, a larger percentage of their disposable income is now spent on home repayments and possibly limits their ability to pay private school fees on top," Mr Abel said. The announcement of the new City Beach high school, to be built by 2019, bucked the trend of recent public high schools built in Perth. Most new schools were located in newly-established suburbs such as Baldivis, Butler and Byford. Mr Abel believed the strong performances of public schools in the western suburbs was another reason more families were flocking to the area, with some renting a house just so their children could fall within the catchment zone for Shenton College and Churchlands Senior High School.
Perth's affluent western suburbs are experiencing an influx of younger families, as opposed to the traditional older and high income earner residents. The census figures showed that the number of between 2006 and 2011 living in the western suburbs increased by approximately 18% 25-34 year-olds. This new arrival of younger families to the area is largely due to the number of public schools in the western suburbs.