The RLB count matches the observations of others who say that higher land prices, tighter bank controls on development financing and higher building costs – along with weaker expectations of price growth at a time when record numbers of new apartments are due for completion – are causing developers to hold off new developments.

Self-correcting

"There's a pullback in new projects," said Andrew Schwartz, the group managing director of debt and equity property financier Qualitas. "That's the market self-correcting. Some states are experiencing it to greater extent, but it's consistent across the board."

None of that points to disaster for the construction industry. The number of residential cranes across the nation's skylines has quadrupled in just three years and even now, despite the drop in Melbourne, Sydney and Melbourne's combined 433 cranes exceeds the combined total of 419 in RLB's latest count for northern America – a grouping that includes New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Toronto and Calgary.

The 1.5 per cent increase in total crane numbers across Australia from 653 at the time of the last count in March also reflected a high level of activity, with 325 cranes removed from projects nearing completion during the period and another 335 erected, RLB director of research and development Stephen Ballesty said.

"The high-rise residential apartment market is as hot as ever, with our research identifying 81.3 per cent of all cranes across the country are on residential projects, whilst only 5.3 per cent of the total number are on commercial projects," Mr Ballesty said. "Cranes on the east coast of Australia amount to 90 per cent of all cranes sighted in Australia."

He rejected the notion of a slowdown.


"Despite some media reports, the construction industry cranes are not showing any signs of slowing," Mr Ballesty said.

The report said that while the number of cranes in Melbourne was down, hoardings erected and excavation work occurring at a number of new sites suggested the crane count could rise in the next report.

"We may see an increase in work," it said.

Evenly spread

In Sydney, the number of residential cranes rose to 258 from 239 six months earlier and the proportion of cranes devoted to housing rose to nearly 85 per cent of the total from 83 per cent. In contrast to Melbourne, where high-rise development was concentrated in the CBD and south-eastern suburbs, projects requiring cranes were evenly spread across the greater Sydney area as far west as Whalan, the RLB report shows.

"Projects such as [Frasers Property Australia's] Centrale Apartments have recently installed six cranes on the one site, showing no signs of decreasing the pace or capacity to bring further residences to the market," the report said.

Newcastle recorded nine cranes, unchanged from six months earlier.


Greater Sydney: crane distribution is spread across the wider metropolitan area. RLB

A boom in residential construction also drove Canberra's crane count up to 24 from 17. Residential and health projects pushed Adelaide's total up to 15 from nine cranes. In Gold Coast, the number increased to 34 cranes from 30, as residential work continued to dominate but was complemented by new work on projects such as Robina Private Hospital and the expansion of Jupiter's casino. The Commonwealth Games Athletes Village project alone accounted for 7 cranes.

Hobart joined the crane index for the first time with four cranes. Perth eked out an increase to 48 cranes from 45, but its proportion of cranes devoted to residential work slipped to 48 per cent from 49 per cent.

Meanwhile, in Melbourne: crane distribution is centred on the city and southeast. RLB

Regional picture, Southeast Queensland. RLB