Sydney is big, pricey and home to the most grand and aspirational projects in Australia, from the densely packed CBD to entirely new satellite cities in the west.
The NSW economy grew steaduly in 2023 and the city’s home starts topped the country.
This was due in large part to the state’s population of 8.34 million, which grew 2.1 per cent higher over the year, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data for mid-2023 released in this month.
In NSW, 1826 houses were approved, 4.9 per cent, and 3745 units got the green light, up 9.6 per cent, in October, as Sydney looked skyward to solve the housing crisis.
Construction work reached $19.74 billion, up 12.8 per cent in the year to September and one of the best performances in the nation, with only Western Australia ahead.
CoreLogic data to the end of November showed median house prices had reached $1.4 million, which was up 11.5 per cent for the year.
Apartments also performed well—up 8.1 per cent to $836,220, however price growth was slowing and could dip in 2024.
Despite the hype surrounding some of Sydney’s biggest projects, they were not neccesarily the most surprising, engaging or inspired. So, here are nine of the coolest projects to cross our desk this year.
Developer: Billbergia
Architect: Fitzpatrick+partners
Billbergia’s 50-storey mixed-use tower with a signature cantilever over the Firehouse Hotel added hotel and office space to North Sydney.
Underpinning 88 Walker’s cantilevered structure is 20,000 cubic metres of concrete, 4000 tonnes of reinforcement, 425 tonnes of structural steel, and a 14,500sq m glazed curtain wall.
The prolific developer’s latest residential offering across Wentworth Point and Rhodes also deserve a mention.
Address: 50 Bridge Street, Sydney
Owners: AMP Capital Wholesale Office Fund, Dexus Wholesale Property Fund and Rest Super
Architects: 3XN and BVN
Sydney’s Quay Quarter Tower dominated the global Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat awards.
The project repositioned an existing underused building, the 1976 AMP Centre, retaining a significant portion of its beams, columns, slabs and most of its core.
This resulted in an embodied carbon savings of 12,000 metric tons in structure.
Developer: Anson Group
Architect: BVN Architects
Plans for the coloured 50-storey skyscraper in North Sydney were filed by the Anson Group in November.
The mixed-use development with a high facade-to-floor space ratio could become the biggest tower in St Leonards if approved.
Developer: Urban Property Group
Architect: SJB
One 48-storey white tower paired with a 35-storey metallic tower make up Urban Property Group’s proposed build-to-rent development.
With a capital investment value of $332 million, the development comprises 316 apartments, a five-to-six-storey commercial podium, 197 carspaces, through-site link and public areas.
Address: 520 Gardeners Road, Alexandria
Developer: Charter Hall
Architect: Nettleton Tribe
Ascent on Bourke is a three-level warehouse and distribution centre comprising 27,509sq m of gross floor area split between warehouse and office space.
The state-of-the art warehouse won the green light for development in March and is due for completion next year.
Developer: Twynam Group
Architect: Cox Architecture
Build-to-rent developments in Sydney’s Lower North Shore keep going up with Twynam Group’s plans lodged in November.
The group, which was usually interested in agricultural land holdings, decided to step up into the space with its offering of 271 apartments across 30 storeys and 6000sq m of podium commercial and retail space.
Address: 44-48 O’Dea Street, Waterloo
Developer: Aware Real Estate and Altis Property Partners
Architect: Kengo Kuma
Although Crown Group’s Mastery project has been in the making for a while and its sale to Aware and Altis for $121 million brought it back into the news.
The build-to-rent towers up to 20 storeys just south of the Sydney CBD is part of a community that should have been completed in 2021 but was disrupted by Covid and the Crown Group dispute.
Developer: Bronxx
Architect: IncluDesign
The 17-storey hotel plans submitted by Ciaran Goodman will add 106-rooms and a function centre to Sydney’s CBD.
Sydney’s hotel market was making a major recovery through the course of 2023 as international visitors and work-cations returned to the city.
Developer: General Property Trust Group
Architect: Architectus
GPT bought the two sites for an estimated $185 million last year with the aim of building a major office tower next to Victoria Cross Station.
The decision on the 43-storey tower was moved to the Land and Environment Court after the Development Control Plan panel suggested the setbacks may lead to an “over intensification of use” and the project was refused.
