For decades, Australian suburbs have followed a familiar pattern: homes facing the street, garages at the front and driveways cutting across the footpath. One new estate is changing that formula.
In WA, new estate Jindee upends a traditional model. Image: realestate.com.au
At Jindee, a design-led coastal estate in Perth's northern beaches, developers have spent years pursuing a different vision for suburban living – one that puts people, rather than cars, at the centre of the street.
Garages are accessed via rear laneways, freeing up the front of the home for verandas, landscaping and uninterrupted footpaths. The approach is inspired by New Urbanist principles that prioritise walkability and community connection.
The vision is unusual enough that Jindee operates under a formal Innovation Agreement with the City of Wanneroo and the WA Planning Commission, allowing the development to pursue planning outcomes that sit outside standard residential design rules.
"What we're doing is looking at how old cities were built before vehicles became the primary mode of transport and incorporating those key principles into modern design," says Nicola Phillips, sales manager at Jindee.
One of the most visible examples is the decision to move garages to the rear of homes.
"If you're building on a 10-metre-wide block – which is very common – and a garage is six metres wide, you end up with a house that's basically a garage and a door and maybe a sliver of a window," Ms Phillips said. "Your opportunity to engage with your community is very, very low."
Jindee's design is intended to foster community interaction. Image: realestate.com.au
At Jindee, removing front driveways wasn't simply a design choice – it was a deliberate attempt to rethink how people interact with their neighbourhood.
"For us, every single house in Jindee has a full veranda frontage," Ms Phillips said. "So rather than a driveway where you just drive in, put the door down and disappear, instead we have this beautiful wide frontage, even on the smaller blocks."
Removing front driveways also creates room for uninterrupted footpaths on both sides of the street and rows of trees that, over time, will form full canopies overhead.
As Ms Phillips noted, this also increases the community safety.
"Footpaths are super safe, with no emerging or entering traffic to worry about. Your kids can be a few metres ahead of you on their bikes and you don't have to be constantly watching for vehicles crossing the footpath."
Nine builders have been involved in designing homes for the estate. Image: realestate.com.au
For the builders contributing homes to the estate, that vision has required a different kind of thinking.
Nine WA builders have created homes specifically for the unique estate, working within architectural standards designed to support the broader vision. While rear laneways are familiar in many older neighbourhoods, designing contemporary homes around them requires a different approach.
"Most builders work with a repeatable product. Jindee is more custom," Ms Phillips said.
Rather than adapting to suit standard house designs, Jindee worked with builders to rethink how homes meet the street, with verandas becoming a defining feature and garages moved to the rear.
Among the builders helping bring that vision to life is Plunkett Homes, which has created five homes for the estate, from compact three-bedroom designs suited to 10-metre frontages through to larger family homes on wider lots.
WA Building Company has developed three designs for the estate, each built around Jindee's rear-laneway model.
New Choice Homes, which offers solutions from concept to completion, contributes four designs spanning a range of lot sizes, from the compact three-bedroom Vienna to the four-bedroom Colonial on a 14-metre frontage.
Custom builder Endeavour Homes contributes two designs: The Seabreeze, a three-bedroom home on a 10-metre frontage, and The Beach Villa, a larger four-bedroom option.
The colours and materials of the home designs have been chosen to match Jindee's seaside location. Image: realestate.com.au
Ross North Homes, MyGen Homes, GRH Designs, Black Pearl Homes and Stannard Group have also contributed homes tailored to the estate's bold concept and coastal village feel.
To create a cohesive architectural character, all homes must comply with Jindee's architectural standards, which draw inspiration from some of Western Australia's most-loved coastal destinations.
"We took influence from Fremantle, Cottesloe and Rottnest," Ms Phillips said. "So we've got vibrant colours – the yellows and the blues and the greens of the sea – beautiful verandas and interesting balustrades. It really is very charming."
The result is a neighbourhood that feels noticeably different from many contemporary estates.
For those behind the planning of the estate, the real measure of success is the sense of community that emerges once people move in.
"It is amazing how it just happens organically. People want to connect," Ms Phillips said.
Jindee is currently sold out ahead of its next land release, with around 100 lots expected annually over the next six to seven years – not including planned foreshore, apartment and commercial precincts.
"We're probably a third of the way through," Ms Phillips noted. "Big stuff still to come."
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