Urban.com.au is tracking 1.3 million square metres of office space in development
1,284,577 square metres is the raw number.
Urban.com.au's Project Database is keeping tabs on close to 1.3 million square metres of office space at various stages of development across Melbourne. It is a phenomenal figure which shows just how bullish the office sector is across this city.
The aggregation of all developments followed by Urban.com.au which contains dedicated office space was prompted by the addition of the latest major planning application to the database - Newmark Capital's 500 Chapel Street - which came to light earlier this month. The total figure included mixed-use and dedicated office projects.
Of course, the headline number is by no means absolute but does take into account 94 separate developments across Melbourne.
Firms such as Savills, Colliers, JLL and Investa have released recent reports on the current strength of Melbourne's office market. Key points that underpin the 1,284,577 square metres in development include:
- Melbourne’s CBD office market could be entering the largest development boom since the early 1990’s
- The Melbourne CBD office market recorded its strongest annual net absorption figure (188,670 sqm) since 1978
- Net absorption at its highest level since 2008 and leasing activity the strongest since 2010
Of course, Melbourne's CBD maintains the largest concentration of office space across the city, at approximately 4.7 million square metres. The current level of office-based development within the CBD stands at just under 10% of the total CBD figure, alluding to the heightened number of large-scale projects which have begun construction.
405 Bourke Street, Collins Arch, 477 Collins Street and 80 Collins Street are all subject to works, with the smallest of these adding 45,000 square metres of space.
Docklands is not left behind either with approximately 200,000 square metres in development, but as has been outlined previously by Urban.com.au, City of Yarra is the Melbourne's 'it' office market. Urban.com.au is tracking 21 separate projects across the municipality that amount to 182,361 square metres in development.
The actual number is likely to be higher as a number of planning applications have yet to make it to the public sphere.
Further afield and Newmark Capital's 500 Chapel Street is shaded by Frasers Property's 254-294 Wellington Road as suburban Melbourne's largest office development in the making; the Mulgrave project encompasses 60,583 square metres.
