Melbourne's apartment boom has resulted in soaring numbers of central city property owners defaulting on rate notices and a sharp jump in legal action to recover millions of dollars owed.

The steep rise in owners failing to pay rates follows hard on the heels of the latest warning of an apartment glut by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Construction sites in Melbourne. Credit:Eddie Jim

Over a four-year period to June this year, the amount of unpaid rates in the CBD and Southbank has doubled, as has the number of property owners prosecuted for failure to pay.

Figures obtained by BusinessDay for the CBD and Southbank precincts show 3651 property owners this year failed to pay $2.561 million in council rates - a charge levied for services like rubbish collection, infrastructure and planning.