Sydney left behind on building heights

Despite being the nation’s largest city, Sydney’s skyline is being eclipsed by other Australian centres, with the NSW capital lagging behind Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast in terms of skyscraper heights, according to property and urban development experts.

Once home to Australia’s tallest buildings, Sydney now contains just three of the country’s ten tallest skyscrapers.

Sydney’s tallest building, World Tower (230 metres to roof), is well down the list, coming in at number seven – considerably lower than the country’s tallest building, the 297-metre Eureka Tower in Melbourne. (As a non-habitable observation tower, the 309-metre Sydney Tower is not considered a building.)

A 235-metre council-ordained height limit imposed on the CBD means Sydney will continue to be surpassed by other Australian cities on the skyscraper front – and experts say it’s not just a matter of parochial civic pride.

Stephen Albin, CEO of the Urban Development Institute of Australia (UDIA) NSW, said it was putting the Harbour City at an economic disadvantage.

“When you have cities like Brisbane and Melbourne building taller buildings than we are – not to mention overseas cities – you have a situation where these cities can be more competitive in terms of providing commercial office and residential space,” said Mr Albin.

“They can offer more diversity and more floor space in their CBDs.”

Mr Albin said less floor space meant less competitive business costs.

“It’s a supply and demand issue. If you keep the available stock of something low – in this case, if you restrict CBD floor space by imposing height limits – the price goes up.”

Glenn Byres, NSW executive director of the Property Council of Australia, said a rethink of Sydney’s CBD height limits was inevitable.

“By international standards, it’s a small CBD for the size of the city, which means space is at a premium,” said Mr Byres.

“Corporations want to be located downtown, and for Sydney to be a growing city that continues to attract new business, there’ll probably have to be a rethink on height limits at some point.”

City of Sydney Councillor Christine Forster was supportive of raising Sydney’s height limits – but not in an open slather way.

“I am not opposed to an increase in building height limits in the CBD, provided there is no significant loss of amenity in surrounding city streets and parks,” she said.

“Taller buildings have a smaller footprint, and offer economies of scale, making them more efficient. In a CBD constrained by infrastructure and geographical limitations, it may be necessary and most efficient to grow upward rather than outward.”

However her Liberal Party colleague, Councillor Edward Mandla, said Sydney had the balance between building heights and amenity “about right”.

“Getting good design outcomes is much more important than building taller skyscrapers,” said Mr Mandla.

“There are lots of boys with penis envy when it comes to skyscrapers,” he added.

“Unlike Melbourne and Brisbane, Sydney doesn’t have an inferiority complex – we don’t have to prove ourselves by building taller buildings.”

Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore said the City of Sydney was currently reviewing height limits.

“The City of Sydney has now begun a review of central Sydney’s planning controls, partly in response to concerns about central Sydney’s development capacity,” said Ms Moore.

“The Central Sydney Planning Review, approved by Council in March last year, will examine the appropriateness of current height and floor space limits and ensure the City’s $90 billion economy has room to grow.”

Ms Moore said it was the first comprehensive review of planning controls since 1988, and would take three to five years to complete.

The State Government is also currently reviewing planning controls. A spokesperson for NSW Planning Minister Brad Hazzard said a white paper called A New Planning System for NSW would be released for public comment “within the next few months”.