Record crane boom masks building crisis as rising costs stall future apartment projects

Australia’s skyline is heaving with more cranes than ever before, but experts warn the construction boom could be masking trouble ahead as rising costs, higher interest rates and a cooling housing market threaten the next wave of projects. The latest RLB Crane Index has recorded a record 896 cranes operating across Australia in the third quarter of 2026, up from 840 just six months ago. Cranes dominate the skyline at a project on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Photo: Contributed Housing is driving the surge, with residential and mixed-use developments accounting for 650 cranes — almost three-quarters of every crane in the country. But Ray White Group head of research Vanessa Rader warned the record figure reflected projects that had already secured funding and made it to construction, rather than the increasingly difficult conditions facing developments still on the drawing board. “For private developers, particularly in apartments, these pressures together with the cooling residential market and rising interest rates are making it harder for projects to stack up,” Ms Rader said. Some projects were being held back from construction despite underlying demand, she said. “The risk ...