Apartments dominate 2016 Development Excellence Awards

It’s no coincidence that Sydney multiple – dwelling projects swept the floor at the recent 2016 Development Excellence Awards – it’s suggestive of an apartment boom, says the organisers.

The transformed old Swiss Grand Hotel at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, now a luxurious apartment building called Pacific Bondi Beach, received the program’s top honour and topped off a successful night for multi-res developers who grabbed the bulk of the awards.

Pacific Bondi Beach was awarded the Development of the Year by the event’s organisers, property lobby group Urban Taskforce, while new apartment buildings at Parramatta, St Leonards, Barangaroo, Mascot and Riverwood also took prizes in this year’s awards.

According to the Urban Taskforce, the awards demonstrate an apartment boom that is sweeping across Sydney and other Australian Cities. But is this true?

The Housing Monitor for the Greater Sydney Region recently released by the NSW Government suggests that it is in some parts of the metropolitan. According to the monitor, four of the top ten suburbs according to housing completions over the past 12 months have been dominated by apartments.

The suburbs of Parramatta, Ryde and Rockdale have all been flooded with apartments but it’s the City of Sydney who’s at the head of the apartment boom, they had a total of 2,620 completions between May 2015 and April 2016 of which 2,593 were multi-units and only 27 were detached dwellings.

This supports recent anecdotes from architects and builders who have been reporting a high demand for high-end multi-residential work from clients looking to transition to apartment-style city living with all the bells and whistles of detached living.

ADAPTIVE RE-USE DEVELOPMENT Bridgehill Residences by SJB Architects, developed by Bridgehill Milsons Point

Originally published by Architecture And Design