Perth’s city skyline set to change dramatically

Perth city council has recently approved around 60 new buildings in and around the central business district, meaning the skyline is about to change dramatically.

Of the 60-or-so approved buildings, around 30 will be located in central Perth or Northbridge. Another 20 will be located in East Perth, and just under 10 have been earmarked for West Perth.

The majority of new buildings will function either as apartment towers or hotels, reflecting the growing population of Perth’s city centre. It is predicted that Perth’s current population of 27,000 will grow to around 40,000 by 2036.

A 62-storey hotel and apartment tower – a $100 million development that will soon be Perth’s tallest building – is among the newly-approved developments. To sit on the current site of St. Andrew’s church, the skyscraper will stand at 249.5 metres in height – a mere 50 centimetres taller than Rio Tinto’s Central Park tower.

In light of the announcement, the City of Perth has released 3-D model images that reveal the imminent, dramatic changes about to reshape the city’s footprint. In the above image, dark green represents buildings on which construction has begun; light green represents developments for which approval has been granted; and blue represents artist impressions of buildings that could potentially be built on the land.

Announcing the slew of new developments, Committee for Perth chief executive, Marion Fulker, remarked: “Perth is doing what capital cities do – the central business district is becoming the jewel in the crown. It is a place of major transformation, where a mix of uses is making it lively and vibrant.”

Chief executive of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Allison Hailes, further stated: “The research is showing [that] the Perth property market will improve in the next year or two, so developers are expecting that demand would have returned to a more positive level by the time projects are completed.

“There is also interest emerging from investors in the eastern states and overseas because Melbourne and Sydney are becoming overheated and there is an expectation they will slow down in the next couple of years.”

Although around 60 developments have been approved for the city, if historical precedent is anything to go by, not all of these buildings will end up coming to fruition.