Cranes Struck Record Numbers on Sydney Horizon

Sydneysiders wanting to shelter themselves from the unseasonal heat might well discover it in the shadows of the record variety of cranes throughout the city's horizons. Home and building construction group Rider Levett Bucknall's newest Crane Index report reveals there are 288 cranes towering above the higher Sydney area, extending from the CBD to Parramatta in the west, Mascot in the south as well as to the leafy lower north coast. 

The existing boom is unmatched, with the largest cranes and drake low loaders towering above and across the city’s grounds in any time since RLB released its index in August 2012 and a 35 percent boost in numbers in the past 6 months alone. Sydney accounts for 2 thirds of the brand-new cranes set up nationally since September. With 239 cranes, property advancements make up the lion's share of the activity, compared with 22 in the business sector and 16 on civic building and construction tasks throughout Sydney. 

"Sydney strongly remains to be the building king for Australia, with the greatest variety of cranes put up in the property, business and civic sectors," RLB NSW handling director Matthew Harris stated. Nonetheless, Melbourne is also seeing a hectic construction scene with 148 cranes dotting the horizon, mainly around the city. Secret crane locations within Melbourne happen in the CBD, Carlton, Caulfield, Chadstone, Docklands, Toorak and Southbank.

But with indications the real estate market is cooling, will the building boom last? February data on real estate approvals suggests a continuing fall in NSW from June 2015, lobby group Urban Taskforce has reported. "June 2015 was a peak for NSW real estate approvals with an overall of 5,921 changed for pattern, but this number has fallen to 5036 in February 2016," Urban Taskforce president Chris Johnson stated.

"While 5000 approvals in a month is still a healthy number, that there has been a drop of 900 approvals shows a stressing pattern," he stated. But RLB's Mr Harris said that he is yet to see indications of a downturn. "Regardless of exactly what you read, [it] is not cooling off," he stated. "There has been an increase of 44 percent in property work done to more than $10 billion in 2015 and the momentum does not appear to be slowing," he stated.

The existing boom in bubble crane numbers even eclipses the feverish building in the years ahead of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. In 1998, for instance, there were 34 cranes throughout the Sydney CBD while at Olympic Park, there were 35 at exactly what is now ANZ Arena alone. But by late 1999, the CBD number had actually decreased to 22 and at the low point of late 2000, there were 10.