Boom time beginning

If you think Southbank is booming, then hang on to your hat, the party is only starting.

There is almost twice as much construction either underway or planned within Southbank than has taken place over the past 13 years.

The City of Melbourne’s recently-released Development Activity Monitor (DAM) shows that 6948 apartments have been built in Southbank since 2002 but that a further 12,339 are either under construction or are on the drawing board.

One of the metrics measured by the DAM is “floors above ground”.  Since 2002, some 994 floors have been added to the Southbank skyline.  There are a further 1962 coming to a street near you.

However, it’s not the same story on the commercial front. Since 2002, some 131,405sqm of net lettable floor space has been added to the Southbank, with a further 57,593sqm on its way.

Retail is also not expanding as quickly as residential, where an extra 9209sqm is either underway or planned.  This figure is significantly lower than the 76,176sqm of retail growth experienced in 2014.