A $495m, 220m tower has been approved at the entrance to Queen Victoria Market

The massive, 220m-plus tall tower has been approved by the state government at the entrance to Queen Victoria Market.

The $495m, 65-storey, 1500-apartment building is the latest to be pushed forward by the Allan government as it seeks to strengthen the pipeline of new housing projects across the city.

But there have been questions about its construction timeline, with development industry groups warning that the cost of building the housing towers could rise as the conflict in Iran continues.

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Inside the major shopping hub of Melb in the north

The 400 Queen St site will include 693 new apartments, 900 student residences, as well as office and retail space and is being developed by Malaysia-based Sime Darby Property.

The approval also comes with an $8m contribution to affordable housing projects across the province.

Sime Darby bought the site, then a seven-storey car park owned by Kim Lim Pty Ltd and home to TMG College Australia, for $115m in 2024.

The project designed by COX Architects will be one of the tallest on the west side of the Melbourne CBD, and among Melbourne’s 25 tallest towers to date.

The height and location of the tower raised concerns from a Queen Victoria Market trader that it would impact the market – particularly with the project to replace the existing car park.

It also comes amid growing concern over a backlog of approved mega-towers with minor construction still underway.

The development is expected to have retail and commercial spaces at ground level.

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Planning Minister Sonya Kilkenny said the approval was part of their aim to build more homes close to public transport and key services.

“We’ve commissioned over 1,500 homes right in the heart of the CBD so more people can live close to work, uni, public transport and everything they need,” Ms Kilkenny said.

But with a growing number of mega-towers approved, but not yet built, there are questions about when work will begin on many of them.

An impressive part of the project’s facade will be a low-level interaction.

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The chief executive of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, Linda Allison, said yesterday that while she was grateful for the planning permission support from the government “the basics still need to be put together”.

“It’s been a challenge in Victoria since post-Covid, particularly in the apartment sector, and we can expect that to continue unless there’s some sort of intervention to support the industry to get these projects off the ground,” Ms Allison said.

He added that the war in Iran was causing effects on key construction materials including PVC pipes and resins, as well as an increase in the general cost of construction materials and trade due to rising fuel costs, which would add to the cost of construction problems faced by developers – although it was too early to say how much of an impact it would have.

At 220m tall, the building will be among the tallest in the west of the city.

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Ms Allison said one of the key ways to deal with this is to create more favorable tax outcomes that will encourage developers and potentially improve the costs of home buyers.

There was good news for the CBD towers earlier this week, with a 748-unit student accommodation tower set to break ground on Monday.

With 892 beds spread across all areas, the site at 570 Little Bourke St, corner of King St, will have nearly 10 percent of the state pipeline built for the purposes of 9,170 students.

But it’s just a few hundred meters away from two other vacant lots on King St that have fallen into disrepair for so long that their developers were forced to turn the sites into public parks by the City of Melbourne.

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