Craigie, WA 6025Home loan and property guide

Craigie location and character

Craigie lies in Perth's northern suburbs within the City of Joondalup, adjoining Woodvale, Hillarys, Padbury and Kingsley. The suburb name was chosen in 1970 and honours an early councillor of the City of Wanneroo who did work in developing the city.

Craigie is one of the four Whitfords suburbs that resulted from the State Government rezoning a large area of coastal land for development in 1969. That single planning decision shaped this part of the northern corridor, and explains why Craigie, Padbury and their neighbours developed on a similar pattern over the following decade.

The suburb once had a senior high school, Craigie Senior High School, which opened in 1976 and closed in 2003 following a decline in student enrolments. Students were shifted into Padbury Senior High School or Belridge Senior High School, and Padbury itself closed in 2011.

Transport and amenity in Craigie

There is no railway station within Craigie. Whitfords station on the Yanchep line lies about 19.8 kilometres from Perth by rail and Joondalup about 26.2 kilometres, both reached by bus or car. The Yanchep line is 54.5 kilometres long with sixteen stations and commences in a tunnel under the Perth CBD as a through service with the Mandurah line.

Transperth bus route 463 runs from Whitfords Station to Joondalup Station, serving Whitfords Avenue, Marmion Avenue, Coral Street, Camberwarra Drive and Craigie Drive, so it connects the suburb to both stations on the line. Other routes serve the surrounding streets.

By road, Marmion Avenue and Whitfords Avenue carry district traffic and the Mitchell Freeway to the east provides the fast route to the city. Local shopping serves daily needs, with Westfield Whitford City nearby. Schools operate in the suburb and its neighbours, and this guide does not describe school catchments.

Housing stock in Craigie

Craigie is built predominantly of detached houses from the development that followed the 1969 rezoning, typically single-storey brick and tile homes on suburban lots. Compared with Duncraig and Woodvale, the stock is smaller on average and weighted towards three-bedroom homes, which is the main reason entry prices here differ from its neighbours.

At the 2021 Census, 2,308 of the 2,611 occupied private dwellings were separate houses, 276 were semi-detached or townhouse dwellings and 27 were flats or apartments, so houses made up 88.4 per cent of occupied homes against 72.3 per cent nationally, while attached dwellings accounted for 10.6 per cent. Three-bedroom homes numbered 1,537 and four-bedroom homes 822.

Inspections in stock of this age commonly consider roof tiles and ridge capping, cracking associated with ground movement, original wiring and plumbing, asbestos-containing materials in dwellings built before the 1980s, and the approval status of patios, pools and extensions.

Who lives and buys in Craigie

The 2021 Census counted 6,456 residents in Craigie, with a median age of 35 against 38 for Australia and an average household size of 2.4 people compared with 2.5 nationally. Adults aged 25 to 34 were the largest group at 1,242, followed by 1,036 aged 35 to 44 and 765 children aged 5 to 14, a notably younger profile than the surrounding suburbs.

Mortgaged ownership leads and renting is substantial by corridor standards. The Census recorded 1,272 dwellings owned with a mortgage, 658 owned outright and 627 rented, so 49.2 per cent of households with a stated tenure had a mortgage, 25.4 per cent owned outright and 24.2 per cent rented, against 30.6 per cent renting nationally. Median weekly household income was $1,792 against $1,746.

Median monthly mortgage repayments were $1,733 against $1,863 and median weekly rent was $375, matching the national figure. For a buyer, this is the most accessible of the established Whitfords suburbs, drawing first home buyers and investors as well as families, with smaller stock and lower outright ownership than its neighbours.

Planning and bushfire mapping in Craigie

Development is controlled by the City of Joondalup's local planning scheme together with the Residential Design Codes, which set density coding for each lot. Coding determines minimum lot sizes for subdivision, and in a suburb with smaller original housing, coding that supports infill can materially affect land value, so buyers considering subdivision should confirm the position for a specific address.

The closure of Craigie Senior High School in 2003 and Padbury Senior High School in 2011 left surplus sites in this part of the corridor, and former school land has in places been considered for other uses. Buyers may wish to check the current zoning and any proposals affecting land near a former school site.

The Map of Bush Fire Prone Areas, the latest version of which took effect on 13 December 2025, designates land across the state, and the Department of Fire and Emergency Services states that additional planning and building requirements may apply within designated areas. Land near remnant bushland and reserves is the most likely to be designated.

Buying in Craigie under Western Australian contract law

Established houses in Western Australia are normally sold by offer and acceptance. Consumer Protection WA explains that the signed form becomes a binding contract once the seller accepts, and that there is no mandatory cooling-off period, so conditions for finance approval and for building and timber pest inspections need to be written into the offer.

There is no mandatory seller disclosure statement in Western Australia, so independent enquiries are important. For houses with recent additions, Consumer Protection WA suggests checking whether work done in the past ten years had council approval. Transfer duty is assessed by RevenueWA.

Home loan considerations for Craigie property

Detached houses and townhouses on standard lots are widely accepted security, and the volume of similar three-bedroom stock gives valuers strong comparable evidence. Where a lot carries subdivision potential under its density coding, a valuer may assess it differently from an identical house on a lot that does not.

With outright ownership at only 25.4 per cent and half of households carrying a mortgage, many purchasers borrow a substantial share of the price, so lenders mortgage insurance or a place in the Australian Government 5% Deposit Scheme is often part of the funding. For investors, the 24.2 per cent rental share gives a deeper tenant pool than most of the surrounding suburbs.

Lending considerations for Craigie

• Outright ownership was only 25.4 per cent, so budgets are more sensitive to repayments than in neighbouring suburbs.
• Renting at 24.2 per cent gives investors a deeper tenant pool than most of the surrounding corridor.
• Density coding that supports infill can materially affect land value on a smaller original lot.
• Western Australian contracts have no mandatory cooling-off period and no mandatory seller disclosure statement.
• Homes built before the 1980s may contain asbestos-containing materials, which inspections consider.

Lender policy differs between institutions and changes over time. The guide to Australian lenders explains how credit policy varies, and the home loan guide sets out the main loan structures.