Many shelved Melbourne apartment projects only at planning stage: Charter Keck Cramer

Headlines suggesting large numbers of Melbourne apartment projects have stalled or been abandoned over the last 18 months create a misleading picture, says property consulting group Charter Keck Cramer, as most of these projects had not even gotten off the planning drawing board, let alone to the off-the-plan marketing sales stage.

According to Charter Keck Cramer, the headlines miss the point because many of the projects that are said to have been abandoned or shelved were projects only on paper, which may have had planning approval but had not been exposed to the market via an off-the-plan sales process.

The Australian Financial Review quoted figures which claimed an average of 11 Melbourne apartment projects a month had stalled or been abandoned since the start of 2011 resulting in 213 failed projects worth a total of $1.2 billion.

Property Observer requested to see the published research but the was told it was not available "at this stage" by the real estate agency, which offers project marketing services to clients.

In the recent past, Melbourne has typically had around 300 medium and high-density projects either planned, under construction or completed, according to the research report Metropolitan Melbourne Apartment Market by Oliver Hume.

The report does not discuss abandoned or stalled projects, but has previously noted that around half were at the construction stage.

"When fully developed, they will deliver about 40,600 apartments. Of these 40,600 apartments, around 22,000 are in buildings already under construction or completed," Oliver Hume's June report says.

The report noted that a total of 27 new metropolitan Melbourne projects were released during the June quarter, containing around 2,150 units – "the lowest number of projects since records commenced".

In the corresponding quarter last year there were 38 projects released comprising 3,800 units.