Where Melbourne's apartment and townhouse projects are: 158,500 homes in the pipeline
The Victorian Government tracks every housing project of 10 or more homes in Melbourne. In 2025 it counted 1,725 projects not yet finished, with about 158,500 homes, 83% of them apartments. 25,371 homes were under construction. Docklands, Southbank and the CBD have the most, and outside the centre Maribyrnong, Footscray, Box Hill and Preston.
The Victorian Government's Urban Development Program tracks every housing project of 10 or more homes in established Melbourne, from projects under construction to sites councils have identified for housing in the longer term. In 2025 it listed 1,725 projects not yet finished, with about 158,500 homes.
| Stage | Projects | Homes |
|---|---|---|
| Under construction | 307 | 25,371 |
| Firm | 628 | 59,171 |
| Likely | 468 | 38,271 |
| Possible | 322 | 35,720 |
83% of the homes are apartments (131,514), 10% townhouses (15,238) and 7% detached houses (11,781).
Where they are
| Suburb | Projects | Homes |
|---|---|---|
| Docklands | 27 | 11,201 |
| Southbank | 29 | 9,922 |
| Maribyrnong | 9 | 7,600 |
| Port Melbourne | 17 | 7,522 |
| Melbourne CBD | 24 | 6,810 |
| South Melbourne | 26 | 6,019 |
| Footscray | 36 | 5,191 |
| Box Hill | 15 | 4,259 |
| Preston | 47 | 3,804 |
| Richmond | 27 | 3,412 |
The City of Melbourne alone has about 34,800 homes in the pipeline, then Port Phillip (15,600) and Maribyrnong (15,200).
Preston has the most projects of any suburb, 47, but they are smaller: about 80 homes each on average, against 415 in Docklands.
Under construction now
Of the 25,371 homes under construction, the most are in Docklands (2,260), Southbank (2,034), South Melbourne (1,371), Footscray (1,234), Box Hill (1,177) and South Yarra (1,139).
The tallest and the largest
The tallest projects are in Southbank and the CBD: one Southbank project listed as likely would reach 108 storeys, and eight projects would reach 66 storeys or more.
The largest single projects are not towers. A 3,000-home project in Lilydale is all detached houses, and two possible projects in Maribyrnong would add about 3,000 homes each.
How we counted
- From the Urban Development Program's major residential redevelopment sites data for 2025 (Department of Transport and Planning, CC BY 4.0): projects of 10 or more homes in established Melbourne, from council, commercial and aerial-imagery sources.
- Completed projects are left out. "Firm", "likely" and "possible" are the program's own timing classes; a project can change or not go ahead.
- Melbourne's greenfield growth land is covered in Melbourne's next suburbs.
Suburb and property pages in Melbourne now show the planned homes in and around each suburb, by stage.