Sydney is undercoming one of the greatest changes to its face, ever. All it takes is to simply drive down one of the many arterial roads within the city to see cranes dotting our skyline. These cranes are mostly dotting Sydney’s skyline for residential apartments which can be seen in every part of the city, from Penrith to Cronulla & Hornsby to Campbelltown.
Some commercial, educational and civic projects do make up a portion of this crane mix but the vast majority is dedicated to residential property construction projects whether they may be high-rise, mid-rise or low-rise.
At the last count, there were 297 cranes hovering above Sydney according to RLB, which represented a total of 43.9% of all cranes on the Australian continent.
When you also consider that this is almost double the amount of cranes when compared to the beginning of 2015 (which was also going through a housing price boom) you can really see just how much construction is going on.
Although, when you consider that at one point in 2017 there were 350 cranes on it’s skyline, then it makes you realise just how large & ongoing the construction boom (particularly around residential apartments) has really been. Residential apartment cranes represent over 75% of all cranes on the Sydney metropolitan skyline.
The rise towards apartment living has begun in Sydney, with a growing amount of the market living in apartments over houses, despite sometimes having larger costs associated with apartments and strata living as a whole.
Which areas have seen the most amount of construction over the last few years?
Areas within Sydney which have seen the most drastic rises in construction activity include areas in the Parramatta region, including the Parramatta CBD and its surrounding suburbs (which include Rosehill, Granville, Merrylands, Westmead, Wentworthville & Mays Hill). The population is exploding in these suburbs and with rising populations comes a direct need to house all these new residents, whether it be townhouses or apartment complexes.
The Sydney CBD has seen relatively large changes as well, with large developments such as the Crown Sydney, Greenland Centre & One Sydney Harbour all being prominent residential or mixed-use developments within the core Sydney CBD region. New entire regions have emerged such as Barangaroo & development in Sydney Southern CBD region is beginning to spur off around Central Station.
Other areas which have had a very large increase in apartments in the Olympic Peninsula and its surrounding region with suburbs such as Sydney Olympic Park, Rhodes, Meadowbank, Ryde & Wentworth Point all experiencing unprecedented building booms with a large number of residential apartments being built which have changed the landscape of the aforementioned suburbs.
Another boom region within Sydney that has had an ongoing apartment boom is Sydney’s southern suburbs which encompass Zetland (Also known as Green Square), Mascot & Alexandria.
If you are reading this and are from Sydney you have probably noticed a trend here, most of the boom suburbs are located in gentrified parts of the city (Green Square, Wentworth Point, Meadowbank, Parramatta CBD, Graville, etc).
As Sydney’s population increases, we must find new ways of housing the population. For many people who work closer to the city, being closer to your place of work is a huge advantage in terms of lifestyle as Sydney already has the longest commute times of any city in Australia.
This is why producing apartments, close to existing transport such as well-serviced train stations and popular motorways such as the M4 & M5 does make sense.
How much construction is occurring within different areas of Sydney?
The inner-city areas have had the most amount of construction occurring. In Q3 of 2020, there were approximately 55 residential cranes contained in the inner-city of Sydney region. There are a total of 30 cranes within Sydney’s Eastern suburbs, 48 residential cranes in Sydney’s Northern Region, 32 residential cranes occupying Sydney Southern Region and finally 61 residential cranes above the Western Sydney region.
With a number of residential developments still in the pipeline and talks of the international borders reopening in the next few years, there could be another wave of development which could change the face of Sydney and its surrounding regions even further
