What we look for in Hillarys, and why it differs from the suburb next door. 19.5 km from the CBD, on the coast, postcode 6025.
Hillarys is named after Bertram Hillary, who built a boatshed on the beach in 1930 during the Depression while fishing, and for years was one of the only residents. The suburb was gazetted in 1971 and its growth was driven by two things built within a decade of each other.
Whitford City opened in 1978 and Hillarys Boat Harbour was built in 1987 for the America's Cup defence, the first major marina in the northern metropolitan area. Those two anchored the suburb, and the north west and south west were fully developed by the mid 1990s.
So this is overwhelmingly a 1970s to 1990s suburb. The housing reflects it. Brick and tile of that era, now thirty to fifty years old, with roofs, wiring and wet areas arriving at various points across that span. Establishing the decade matters, because a 1975 house and a 1995 house are quite different propositions.
The topography here is worth noting. The beach is relatively hard to reach because of large sand dunes and remnant vegetation, unlike suburbs further south. Those dunes mean elevated sites, sand movement, retaining and drainage on the western blocks.
Around the Boat Harbour there is higher density and mixed use, so establish house versus strata. Ocean frontage on a reef coast means real salt exposure, and delignification is a fair check on any original tiled roof.
Large retained dunes and remnant vegetation are the local factor. Both stay. That vegetation is permanent habitat and it sits close to the western housing, so those blocks face steadier pressure than the streets further inland.
Coastal sand otherwise keeps general pressure moderate. Not low. Moderate. Timber in ground contact is the main route, and on elevated dune blocks there is usually a good deal of retaining, decking and fencing, all of which degrades faster in salt air and gets replaced piecemeal.
On stock of this age the original barrier has long stopped working and most have not been renewed. Thirty to fifty years of garden has usually buried the slab edge under paving and beds. In the marina adjacent density, exposure moves to courtyards and planters where the scheme usually holds responsibility.
On a dune block the retaining matters to both reports, and the roof matters to both. One attendance covering the property properly beats two partial visits. Reported under AS 4349.1 and AS 4349.3.
On an elevated dune site, ask how the block drains and where the water actually ends up going. Sand moves, and retaining on a dune fails from the bottom, neither of which is apparent from the street.
Thirty to fifty year old stock is generating renovation and some rebuilding, so we do staged inspections while work is open and handover checks once the work is finished and signed off. Around the Boat Harbour we do strata work, where coastal concrete condition is the recurring question and the scheme's spending record answers most of it.
Hillarys is overwhelmingly a 1970s-1990s suburb, so its brick-and-tile stock now sits at thirty to fifty years old, with roofs, wiring and wet areas coming due for their first major maintenance cycle. The spread of vintages means establishing a given home's build year is worth doing, since a 1975 home and a 1995 home are at quite different points in that cycle. The terrain adds a real consideration: large sand dunes and remnant vegetation mean elevated dune sites with sand movement, so retaining and drainage are read on the sloping blocks, and the stability of any cut-and-fill site is assessed.
The Boat Harbour precinct brings some higher-density and mixed-use, marina-adjacent stock, so near there the inspection establishes house versus strata and reads the concerns that marina-adjacent and medium-density housing bring. With ocean frontage on the Marmion Marine Park reef coast, salt exposure is a genuine factor, so fixings, gutters, flashings and exposed metal are read for corrosion and any older tiled roof gets a batten check for delignification. A Hillarys inspection reads the build year across a 1970s-90s range, the dune-site retaining and drainage, the house-versus-strata question near the harbour, and the coastal salt on the fabric.
On a Hillarys home the build year sets the emphasis, since the 1970s-90s range spans quite different points in the maintenance cycle: an older home is read for second-cycle roofs, services and wet areas, a newer one for first-cycle wear. On the elevated dune sites the retaining walls and the down-slope drainage are read for movement and for how sand mobility is managed, and any cut-and-fill site is checked for stability. Near the Boat Harbour the inspection establishes house versus strata and reads the marina-adjacent and medium-density concerns. Across the coastal stock the salt drives checks on fixings, gutters, flashings and exposed metal, with any older tiled roof getting a batten check for delignification.
None of it is guesswork. Reading the stock above into an inspection, these are the checks the Hillarys pattern pushes to the top of the list:
Hillarys sits on the Quindalup dune system — young calcareous sand, still mobile in places, and thin over the water table near the front. Sand this young has low bearing capacity but very little reactivity, so footing movement is uncommon and drainage problems are not. What the ground gives you here it takes back in the air.
What that means in practice, on a house in Hillarys:
Landform is assigned from the suburb's position on the Swan Coastal Plain rather than from a site soil test. It tells you what to expect, not what you have. A site classification to AS 2870 is a different exercise and a different report.
Whitford City Shopping Centre is the fixed point most people in Hillarys navigate by. Buildings like it are useful to an inspector for a duller reason: they date the area. Whatever era put that up is usually the era that put up the houses around it, and the construction methods of that decade are what we expect to find in the roof.
Sorrento, Kallaroo and Mullaloo sit on the same ground as Hillarys, so the footing behaviour and the drainage problems tend to repeat across all of them. If you are comparing houses across those suburbs, you are largely comparing the same site conditions.
Padbury is 2.9 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system; Craigie is 3.4 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system; Duncraig is 3.9 km away but sits on the Spearwood dune system. That is the useful thing about this part of Perth: the ground can change inside a few kilometres, and with it what an inspection is looking for.
On site classification: any soil zone quoted for a suburb is indicative, inferred from geography rather than surveyed. A real AS 2870 classification comes from geotechnical work on your actual block and can differ from the one next door. We report what we observe; we do not read your soil class off a map.
The inspection is visual and non-invasive, over the readily accessible areas, reported to AS 4349.1. Our inspectors physically enter the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access. Report within 24 hours of the inspection.
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Flat fee, the same in Hillarys as anywhere: $440 inc. GST for a pre-purchase building inspection, or $616 inc. GST with the timber pest scope added in the same visit. Full price list →
Right on the coast in Joondalup — the band where coastal salt drives the defects. The fee concentrates on delignified battens, corroded ties and fixings, and the salt staining that starts inside the masonry, with the roof space taking the longest on a tiled roof past its first decade.
Pre-purchase building inspection in Hillarys →
Building and pest inspection in Hillarys →
Yes. Our inspectors physically enter and inspect the roof space, as long as there is sufficient access to do so safely. Where access is restricted, the report says so plainly rather than implying we saw more than we did.
Hillarys is on the coast, inside the band where delignification should be expected in tile battens. On a tiled roof more than about ten years old it is one of the first things we look at.
Within 24 hours of the inspection itself, not 24 hours from booking. On a pre-purchase or pre-settlement job that timing is the whole point, because your leverage disappears once you are committed.
We would rather you checked than took our word for it. These are the bodies that actually hold the records and set the rules:
Tell us about the property and what you need. We'll come back to you with a firm quote and a time.
PERTH