A 42-Storey Tower Is Coming to Fishermans Bend — Here's What It Means for Melbourne's Apartment Market

Planning approval has been granted for a 42-storey residential tower on Salmon Street in Fishermans Bend's Montague precinct, adding 412 apartments to a corridor that the Victorian Government has earmarked to house 80,000 residents by 2050. The decision, confirmed by the Department of Transport and Planning this week, clears the way for the developer to begin construction documentation ahead of an expected 2027 groundbreaking.

The timing matters. Melbourne's auction clearance rate has been sliding, hovering around 58 per cent through the June quarter according to PropTrack data — a figure that reflects genuine hesitation from sellers and buyers alike. Off-the-plan apartment sales, particularly in high-density precincts, have been among the hardest hit. Developers who banked on pre-sales to satisfy construction finance requirements have found the environment brutal. A project of this scale moving through the system is a signal that institutional capital still has appetite for Fishermans Bend, even if retail buyers are cautious.

What the Montague Precinct Actually Looks Like Right Now

Spend an hour on Ferrars Street or near the intersection of Williamstown Road and you get a picture of a neighbourhood mid-transformation and mid-confusion. Cranes compete with single-storey warehouses. A handful of completed towers from the 2021-2023 building wave sit alongside vacant lots awaiting the next planning cycle. The Montague precinct lacks the amenity infrastructure — schools, parks, a train station — that would justify its ambitions, and residents in completed buildings have been pointing that out for years.

The approved tower sits roughly 600 metres from the proposed Fishermans Bend Metro Station, a project that remains locked in the long-term infrastructure pipeline with no confirmed construction start date. Melbourne Metro Tunnel's City Loop reconfiguration, which opened in 2025, has done nothing to accelerate the Fishermans Bend line. That gap between approved density and delivered transport is the central tension in the precinct, and this tower does not resolve it.

The project's developer lodged amended plans with the City of Port Phillip in late 2025 before the application moved to the state-level Development Facilitation Program — a pathway introduced to fast-track projects above a certain threshold and reduce delays at local council level. Port Phillip has historically pushed back on tower heights in Montague, so the state-level route was the pragmatic choice.

Prices, Supply and What Buyers Should Actually Consider

Melbourne's median unit price sits at approximately $620,000 — a figure that masks enormous variation. Comparable stock in Southbank trades from around $550,000 for a one-bedroom to well above $900,000 for two-bedroom apartments with river views. Early indicative pricing circulating among buyer's agents for the Salmon Street project puts one-bedroom apartments between $530,000 and $590,000, with two-bedrooms from $780,000. Those numbers position it competitively against South Melbourne and Carlton, where equivalent new stock regularly clears $650,000 for a one-bedder.

The supply argument for Fishermans Bend is real. Victoria needs an estimated 80,000 additional dwellings per year through to 2034 to meet demand driven by net overseas migration — the state recorded an intake of roughly 165,000 people in the year to March 2025. Apartment construction has not kept pace. Projects like this one are supposed to fill that gap, but only if they actually get built. Melbourne has a long history of approved towers that stall at the pre-sales stage.

For buyers weighing an off-the-plan commitment in Montague, the practical calculus comes down to timeline risk and liveability patience. Settlement on a 2027 groundbreaking won't arrive until 2030 at the earliest. By then, the Fishermans Bend Metro Station question will be no closer to resolution unless the next state budget makes a decisive move. Buyers who've watched the Arden precinct in North Melbourne develop incrementally over the past five years understand how slowly urban renewal translates from planning documents into a neighbourhood you'd actually want to live in. The tower is approved. The suburb still has work to do.