The house at 656 Anketell Road sits on a 2.01-hectare block, a size that reflects how Anketell once looked before large-scale suburban development began pushing south. Properties like this were never broadacre farms (wide, open paddocks) but they also weren’t suburban either and sat in between. Large rural-residential lots used for space, animals, sheds or just privacy, rather than agriculture.

 

This part of Anketell was being settled in the late 1970s, when semi-rural lifestyle blocks became common. The house itself is modest for the 134m² land size and was built around 1978–1979.

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Use of the land

The property doesn’t seem to have ever been used for large-scale farming. Like many blocks along Anketell Road, it was most likely used as a rural-residential or hobby-scale property, possibly with light grazing, paddocks, or outbuildings, rather than commercial agriculture. These kinds of uses were common in the area.

 

Ownership and sales history

The first time the property was sold for $194,000 occurred on 11 August 2001. At that time, Anketell was still very much rural in character, with little indication of the urban expansion that would follow.

 

A second sale took place on 1 November 2007, when the property changed hands for $1.74 million. That jump in value reflects not the house itself but the land and growing awareness that this area sat directly in the path of future development. The property is now owned by Filton Pty Ltd, who seem to be holding it as part of a longer-term land strategy rather than as a typical family home (despite the house being far from inhabitable today!)

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Ownership: Filton Pty Ltd

They are a small private company that has been used primarily to hold property assets and at times, to pursue redevelopment proposals. Whilst they currently only own 656 Anketell Road, the company has previously owned at least 123 other properties over time.

 

Although the company lists its main business location as Victoria, the name Filton Pty Ltd appears in several Western Australian planning and legal records, particularly within the City of Vincent during the early to mid-2000s.

 

These records include:

• 40 Bulwer Street, Perth: Filton Pty Ltd was the owner of a former hostel site proposed to be demolished and replaced with grouped/multiple dwellings. The development application was refused in 2005 but a revised proposal was approved with conditions in 2007.

• State Administrative Tribunal case (2006): The company was involved in a planning dispute titled Filton Pty Ltd and Town of Vincent [2006] WASAT 70, heard by the State Administrative Tribunal. The case has since been cited in planning discussions about how developments are classified as “grouped dwellings” versus “multiple dwellings.”

• Oxford Street, Leederville: Filton Pty Ltd was listed as the property owner of a site where a development application for grouped or multiple dwellings was refused in 2002.

 

Overall, these examples suggest that Filton Pty Ltd has been used as a property-holding and development vehicle, rather than as an active, public-facing business, with its involvement becoming visible mainly when redevelopment proposals were lodged or challenged. 

 

The property today

The land doesn’t appear to be earmarked for permanent bushland, particularly as it sits in the area of Anketell that is located in a structure-planned growth corridor. Almost every rural lot is being progressively absorbed into housing estates, local centres, roads, drainage reserves and public open space.