Many farms and horse agistment properties once populated East Cannington until developers realised its potential in the 1990s and thus almost all available land has now given way to suburban housing.

It is at the eastern fringe of urban settlement in the City of Canning, with only semi-rural parts of Kenwick and Wattle Grove between the suburb and the Lesmurdie section of the Darling Scarp.

[3] East Cannington is a residential suburb, with a small neighbourhood shopping centre in Gerard Street (now closed and houses are being built[when?]

where it was) and relying on the nearby Westfield Carousel shopping centre in Cannington boundary for other commercial services.

A large park along the Welshpool Road border includes a nature reserve of indigenous species and a scout hall.