Growth of high-rise in Victoria
28 September 2015 by News Desk
The high-rise boom sweeping Australia has hit Victoria where construction of high-rise homes has reached record levels.
Over the coming 12 months, for the first time in its history, Victoria is set to build more multi-unit dwellings than detached houses. The landmark is in keeping with trends toward urban living that predict Melbourne will become Australia’s largest city by 2050.
Melbourne is home to more than half of Victoria’s total population. The city’s population was 4.4 million at the end of 2014 and Victoria’s was 5.9 million.
Victoria’s residential building approvals are running at a record annual rate of 68,000. The equivalent national approvals figure also hit a record 221,000 in July, driven by a strong rise in multi-unit approvals in Melbourne and Sydney over the past year.
Total residential building approved in 2015 was a record $20.2bn, up 20% from 2014, with 50% in detached houses.
In Victoria, multi-unit dwelling approvals, mainly high rise apartments in the metropolitan areas, now account for around 50% of the Victorian total. It compares to about 60% for NSW which has been building more multi’s than detached homes since the mid-1990s.
Industry observers predict an average of 65,000 new homes built in Victoria in 2015-16, made up of around 33,000 multi-unit dwellings and 32,000 detached houses, with multi-dwelling properties built in the inner suburbs. High rise apartment blocks account for 80% of all multi-units and 46% of total residential properties.
