Sydney bucks national trend with increase in approvals for apartment developments: Bankwest
New South Wales leads the nation in the march toward medium density living, being the only state in the country to experience growth in medium density approvals in the 12 months to March 2017.
That is one of the key findings of the new Bankwest Housing Density report which analysed approvals in medium density and low density housing over both the long and the short term.
Bankwest General Manager Broker Sales Stewart Saunders said growth in these areas highlighted the continued strong property demand in Australia’s most populous state and its capital city.
“The growth seen in Sydney and New South Wales shows the existence of a highly competitive property market there with price pressures creating continued opportunity for medium density housing in the city.
The report shows how New South Wales there was a 5.9% increase in the amount of approvals for medium density housing (apartments) over the year to March 2017.
Similarly, Sydney was the only capital city to register substantial growth in medium density approvals during the 12 months to March, with the number of approvals increasing by 11.6% during the period.
“The picture for the rest of the country was markedly different from what we saw in New South Wales.
While the march towards apartment style living continues what we have seen during the period of our survey is the biggest down turn in approvals for medium density housing for over four years,” Mr Saunders added.
Medium density approvals at a national level dropped by 6.5% in the 12 months to March to 110,471, down from 118,156 the previous year.
It appears this national decline was largely driven by declines at a state level in Queensland (down 25.6%), and Western Australia (down 27.1%).
Mr Saunders said that while the report showed a general downturn over the 12 months to March 2017 there were pockets where there was notable growth.
“The analysis of the data has allowed us to produce a top ten of the Australia’s fastest growing areas for apartment-style living. Interestingly, the area of Cottesloe-Claremont in Perth came out on top.
“Over the 12 months to March this year over half [50.2%] of all housing approvals in that area were for medium density housing.
Looking a little closer at what’s happening at a local level it would appear the “Claremont on the Park” development, where there are plans to build some 750 apartments, is the reason for the slight anomaly,” he said.
Mr Saunders said the annual Housing Density Report is the latest in Bankwest’s ongoing series of insights on economic data, trends and issues of value to its customers, businesses, communities and policy makers.
“Bankwest is committed to helping customers and local businesses achieve what matters, contributing to the development of our communities and being a constructive voice in the debate on the future of the economy.”
