Melbourne is going upwards and very soon will command the tallest skyline in Australia as over 100 skyscrapers exceeding 100 metres are either in the planning or construction phase.

The city of Melbourne has currently 100 projects over 100 metres high either being built or in the planning stages

The city of Melbourne has currently 100 projects over 100 metres high either being built or in the planning stages Image by David Wallace / CC BY 2.0

The glut of what will largely be residential tower building will double the central city tall buildings numbers within a couple of year.

And the Melbourne Age reports that seven skyscrapers – if they get planning approval – will tower over 265 metres, putting them into the city’s top ten tallest buildings.

According to Skyscraper Centre data, those developments would almost certainly put Sydney in the shade. It currently holds the tallest Australian city status, but has less than 30 buildings over 100 metres planned, compared to Melbourne which has 110 in the planning or development stages.

Tony Crabb, Savills Australia national head of research, explained the reason for the change was due to the fact that Sydney had very little land left on which to build. He said that due to its harbour, it had 30% less availability than Melbourne which had more land and therefore more options.

Mr Crabb said Sydney was now erecting suburban CBDs as a means of taking the pressure of the city’s CBD.

Melbourne is currently constructing 30 of its planned 100-plus buildings over 100 metres, including the Australia 108 tower in Southbank which comes in at a massive 318-metres in height.

Richard Wynne, Victorian Planning Minister, said he was confident that most of the planned projects would be built and not just speculated on or “flipped.”

He said that Melbourne’s property market was still very robust and he didn’t see anything to suggest a change in the city’s market.

The government has embarked on reviews into the quality of apartments in the city as well as planning rules in the CBD and introduced interim laws in 2015 to limit the amount of new skyscrapers.

Mr Wynne said buildings were just about height, but good design and amenity. It was a question of a development offering something back to the city, he added.