200,000 new flats in Australia
16 December 2015 by News Desk
The apartment boom in Australia has reached a peak with almost 200,000 new properties set to come onto the market.
A new report estimates that 80,000 apartments are currently under construction in capital cities in Australia with an additional 117,000 in the pipeline either approved for construction or now being sold off-plan.
And the flood of properties could lead to over-supply in Melbourne and Brisbane, resulting in rising vacancy rates and, for tenants, a fall in the cost of renting.
Darrell Todd of thinkingaustralia says: “The construction boom in Australia is set to last for the next seven years as developers complete all the new properties currently approved for construction. By 2017 with over-supply in some cities, the cost of renting will have fallen as tenants will have more choice of properties than they do now.”
Sydney has 38% of Australia’s population and 33% of planned new apartments with 7% of new apartments being built in the Central Business District and 23% in western Sydney.
Melbourne currently has 734 projects under construction with over 120,000 apartments. Prime locations are the CBD, Docklands, Footscray and Southbank, according to CommBank Property Insights.
Sydney, meanwhile, has 538 projects under construction with 88,000 apartments in prime locations including the CBD, Parramatta and South Sydney.
Brisbane has 192 projects with over 34,000 apartments and Perth has 140 projects with over 146,000 apartments. In Perth the average apartment price is falling – down 2.6% compared to 2014 – and the number of empty properties is 3.8%.
