Chinese investors add to flats glut WEALTHY private developers from China are the fresh new faces of Melbourne's apartment scene with three separate groups filing applications for residential projects that will add close to 1350 new dwellings to the city's already bloated market. A recent report by Monash University academics Bob Birrell and Ernest Healy found there were 39,000 apartments planned for Melbourne over the next three years, with marketing campaigns already under way. The report noted that more than 22,000 inner-city units were built between 2010 and last year. The academics warned that the rate of apartment development was unsustainable. Their concerns echoed those of the Reserve Bank of Australia, which first warned of a Melbourne apartment glut in September last year. The private developers join a rush of applications from Melbourne's wealthy private developers including the Alter family's Austpac Group, the Grollo family's Grocon, the Liberman family and Ubertas, which is operated by Albert Dadon, the husband of Besen family heir Debbie Besen. The three projects by Apex Vic, Perpetual Normanby and Innovated Construction and Development have an end value of more than $550 million. Also in the Melbourne apartment fray are local listed developers, including Lend Lease, Leighton Properties and Mirvac, as well as groups listed on offshore bourses like Singapore's Hiap Hoe and Chip Eng Seng, Malaysia's SP Setia and Hong Kong's Far East Consortium. Two of the new projects are in the Fishermans Bend precinct, which has seen a rush of applications after the industrial area was rezoned last year to allow for residential development. Perpetual Normanby, which counts China-born Keilor resident Xin Yan as its sole director, is planning a little over 520 apartments in the Montague precinct on a block facing Montague Street. Meanwhile, Apex Vic has recently filed plans for just under 200 apartments on a block abutting City Road in the Montague precinct. It is the second planning application by the group based in Balwyn, in Melbourne's east, and operated by Chinese-born Australian residents. Apex's first application for a 60-storey tower on a site tucked behind Crown casino was filed in June last year and is still awaiting approval by state Planning Minister Matthew Guy. The third project, Innovated Construction and Development, will bring on over 632 apartments and is at the other end of the city near Victoria market. The project will stretch over 63 levels.