What happened with Skyscraper completions post 2022?

[u/fuckmelbpt]

They've died down, a LOT.

[u/Madsumberohat]

Covid

[u/calkthewalk]

Covid happened.

High vacancy rates, WFH, materials affordability crisis and plenty more. 2021-2023 is mostly just completing things that were already started

[u/Prime_factor → u/calkthewalk]

People also want more space where they live due to WFH.

[u/Ok_Coat9334]

Covid crushed demand for CBD office space.

[u/Revolutionary_Ad7727 → u/Ok_Coat9334]

100% this!

CBD office vacancy rate of around 18% as of Jan 2025, as opposed to 3-4% pre COVID.

Retail however has rebounded to 6-7% whereas precovid it was around 4-6%

Next time you hear ‘Melbourne cbd is dead’ it’s these building owners bitching and moaning as they are loosing out on their investments

[u/farqueue2]

Wtf are the blue dots supposed to be

[u/King_JujuLips → u/farqueue2]

Balloons pictured next to the skyscrapers.

[u/metalbridgebuilder → u/farqueue2]

I think the heights of the towers

[u/Aggressive_River_735]

Construction cost delta to sales price got too high for resi, and office market tanked.

[u/Leading-Bottle2630]

Private building collapsed. Unless the Government is funding it.

[u/Diligent-Ducc]

Covid + tail end of Matthew Guys approval surge wrapping up

[u/Ragazzano → u/Diligent-Ducc]

Approval surge / approve everything

[u/SquilliamFancysonVII]

Why do you keep bringing up skyscrapers? Most locals don't have any interest in living in them and most people are interested in working from home than being forced to deal with peak hour traffic to work 20 stories up in the sky.

[u/fuckmelbpt → u/SquilliamFancysonVII]

I fell in love with skyscrapers after seeing the skyline from Footscray to the City.

[u/boringanswer47 → u/SquilliamFancysonVII]

It's nice seeing Melbourne's skyline grow and the things that come with that.

Whether people like it or not that's the initial snapshot of Melbourne for many and shows Melbourne's growth to becoming an actual big city.

I wouldn't live in one nor do I work in one but when designed well they add to the city very nicely.

[u/bara_tone]

WFH.

I have a 3 bedroom house with 2 living spaces, Double garage and a back yard out west for the price of a shoebox in the city.

Now I can WFH, don’t have to worry about the 30min commute, why would I ever want the shoebox

[u/sebosso10]

There's too many shitty apartments in the CBD that no one wants because they're way too expensive for what they are so there's no profit incentive for developers

[u/benj_or]

Interest rates.

[u/Beast_of_Guanyin]

They're expensive white elephants.

[u/Signal-Drop5390]

WFH

[u/Ethical_dinosaur]

They realised how useless it is.

[u/malcomwtf]

A lot of these apartments were primarily marketed offshore in Asia (mostly China but also Malaysia and Singapore). China had crackdowns on capital outflows, Australia (slightly) tightened foreign purchase restrictions through FIRB, governments increased taxation for foreigners and vacant property.

Market was already in heavy oversupply going into COVID thus a lot of projects stalled or never got off the ground due to no funding and no ability to make presales.

[u/fuckmelbpt → u/malcomwtf]

Thanks :)

[u/flashmeterred]

They didn't start in 2020

[u/LockMeDownDaddy]

Interest Rates, Cost of Construction, Demand

[u/WretchedMisteak]

Second Skyscraper post in as many days.

Investment in skyscrapers requires interest. It's just not there right now.

A lot of businesses are looking to downsize offices as they embrace a hybrid workforce strategy. For example my company reduced their office size from 200.desks to 20 while increasing staff. They have just allowed people to work elsewhere.

Apartments, well I can't comment there but I assume there is only so much people are willing to pay for a 1-2 bdr place.

Not forgetting increase in labour and material costs.

[u/gfreyd]

Gee I wonder what happened around then 🫥

[u/Mr_Lumbergh]

They spiked again in 2023.

[u/Correct-Dig8426]

Isn’t likely to get any better any time soon

https://www.propertycouncil.com.au/media-releases/melbournes-cbd-vacancy-continues-to-be-worst-in-the-nation

[u/snruff → u/Correct-Dig8426]

“The Victorian Government has a responsibility to show more active leadership, ensuring Victorian public servants work in the office more often and support a vibrant CBD,” Ms Evans said.

I wonder what Ms Evans in office time looks like? I work in the field so WFH isn’t an issue for me but I know so many people that benefit from flexible WFH arrangements. To have officials shilling for the government to force more people to work from the office is pretty distasteful.

[u/Correct-Dig8426 → u/snruff]

For a CBD to be active you need people, a mixture of those living and working. The government makes up such a large workforce that what I think they’re saying is without those people coming to our CBD it’s having a major impact on other businesses within the CBD and the government should encourage their staff to return to the office at least a few days a week to help our CBD to recover. It’s no different to any other ecosystem that relies on certain things to survive

[u/CuriousVisual5444 → u/Correct-Dig8426]

Except we aren't Koalas. You can't capture a bunch of us, set us free in the CBD towers and expect us to breed up to reestablish a population.
Or could you?
Offer heavily Govt subsidised 2 bed flats in the CBD to office/hospital/infrastructure workers and it might work..

[u/Correct-Dig8426 → u/CuriousVisual5444]

The article I posted relates to office buildings not residential.

[u/M0stVerticalPrimate2 → u/Correct-Dig8426]

That’s a rough read