Melbourne-born firm RotheLowman has announced it's plans to expand into the NSW multi-residential market and has opened a new Sydney office to facilitate this business strategy.

According to RotheLowman Managing Principal Kim Lowman, Sydney is going through a development boom similar to the one experienced in Melbourne over the last decade.

RotheLowman has completed over 10,000 apartments in Melbourne in the last year and its Brisbane office, opened three years ago towards the end of Queensland’s extended property slump, is already generating 25 per cent of RotheLowman’s income.

Mr Lowman is confident about Sydney’s residential development prospects following an extended period of sluggish growth. A longer-than-usual, post-Olympics and post-GFC property slump in Sydney, along with immigration and population growth have increased demand for multi-residential development.

Mr Lowman expects the Sydney office to generate 30 to 40 per cent of the firm’s revenue in less than three years. RotheLowman currently employs over 100 people and expects to add a further 30 people to its NSW/ACT operation over the next 24 months.

NSW Planning Minister Pru Goward has committed to improving housing supply with a greater proportion of residential apartment developments in Sydney and regional areas. Approvals are at their highest level since June 1999.

A $30 million mixed-use, multi-residential development in Burwood by RotheLowman has recently been approved and the firm is expecting approval for several other major projects in the coming months.

Newly appointed Principal of RotheLowman in NSW and the ACT, Sydney architect Ben Pomroy says that the long term trend of housing construction delivery of 18,000 dwellings per annum in NSW is consistently falling short of baseline demand of 22-25,000 dwellings per annum. Given the continuing population growth in the Sydney region, greater growth in multi-unit residential development across all areas, in particular Sydney’s western and southern suburbs, will be inevitable.

RotheLowman considers itself experienced in design for planning approval including view-sharing, bulk, shadow, scale and urban form considerations for mid-rise mixed-use developments and high-rise apartment towers.

RotheLowman is also targeting projects in the commercial and hotels sectors.