How new apartment supply affects existing apartments

Answer these on the file before you write a market story.

• Same class? Bedroom count and a similar size band. A studio pipeline is weak competition for a three-bedroom existing unit.
• Same search radius? Walking distance matters more than the suburb line. Districts nearby defaults to 800 metres; choose a radius that matches how tenants search.
• Will it be offered for rent or for sale? Owner-occupier completions add less rental competition.
• Where is it on the funnel? Planning approval, building approval, commenced, or complete? The names and portals differ by state and territory. See approvals versus completions.
• What is already listed? Current comparable rental and sale listings for this class. See rental supply pressure.
• What does the existing building have that the new one will not? Floor plate, outlook, street, established strata.

• Rental choice. Many new one- and two-bedroom units advertised together give tenants alternatives. That can slow letting or pull advertised asks down. It can also do neither if the new stock is a different class.
• Quality benchmark. New finishes reset what some tenants expect at a given rent.
• Resale evidence. Early settlements and investor sales add comps. They can sit below off-the-plan asks. They are still recorded sales, not a law.
• Precinct and construction. Retail and streets can improve later. Noise, trucks and lost parking arrive first. See nearby effects.
• Strata. New buildings can carry defects and rising levies. Existing buildings have minutes and levy history you can request.

Labelled illustration. Subject: two-bedroom unit. Source data: 31 two-bedroom units advertised for rent nearby, against a 12-month observed median of 14. One 160-unit project 500 metres away has a building approval. The register does not state bedroom mix. Districts-derived read: current rental competition in this class is elevated relative to the recent median count; a material job sits inside walking distance; bedroom mix is unknown.

What you cannot write: that the subject’s rent or resale price will fall by a percentage when the job completes. Put the bedroom-mix question to the application documents or the sales suite. Scale the 160 against annual unit turnover in that precinct, not against every dwelling in the suburb.

• Using the suburb house median as evidence for units.
• Counting every approved tower as certain supply.
• Ignoring bedroom mix.
• Treating building age only as a negative, or only as a positive.

It does not establish the subject unit’s value, rent or strata health. It does not establish that the new dwellings will be rented. ABS will count every dwelling in that job as commenced or completed together, which is useful nationally and silent on this building’s mix.

A unit page shows nearby projects where a register adapter exists, with status and distance, and counts comparable rentals for the unit’s class. It does not hold strata records, bedroom mix unless the register stored it, or a unit-price model.

Application documents for bedroom mix. Council for building approval and commencement. Strata manager for levies, sinking fund and defects. Recorded resales in comparable existing buildings. A manager who lets this class for time to let.