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Saturday, February 06 2016

Lord Mayor Graham Quirk has announced plans for a new high frequency subway system called the Brisbane Metro to slash travel times for bus commuters if he is re-elected at the upcoming Council elections.

Cr Quirk said the $1.54 billion Brisbane Metro would run on a dedicated route linking Woolloongabba to Herston, utilising sections of the South East and Inner Northern Busways, and would remove up to 200 buses per hour in the morning peak from the Victoria Bridge.

“This is a project that will be built over six years and provide a 100 year life for the city to keep Brisbane heading in the right direction,” he said.

“The growth of our city and the demand on the bus network to feed this growth is looming as one of the greatest challenges Brisbane is facing.

“Brisbane Metro will offer a comfortable, high frequency, fast, time reliable and high capacity link between the suburbs and inner city using a subway system that is quick and easy to get on and off.

“People’s journeys from the suburbs to the city and home again will be faster.

“Brisbane Metro will remove up to 200 buses per hour from slow inner city movements, allowing for more bus services in the middle and outer suburbs. By comparison, Labor’s light rail proposal, that replaces the successful Blue CityGlider, would free up only 18 buses per hour.”

Brisbane Metro 2

Route of the proposed metro

Cr Quirk said continued employment growth, especially in the CBD and inner city, required increased public transport and many parts of the bus infrastructure had reached capacity and the city centre was becoming clogged with a growing number of buses.

“Every day about 170,000 employees, visitors and students travel to or through the city centre, mostly by public transport and this is predicted to climb to 250,000 by 2031,” he said.

“Right now, buses carry a clear majority of public transport trips in Brisbane. The Brisbane Transport bus network carried 76 million passengers in 2014-15, 50% more passengers than the CityTrain network.

“The CBD’s existing bus infrastructure, already at capacity in a number of areas, will not be able to cope.

“The Cultural Centre busway station reached capacity in 2013 with 230 buses per hour leading to chronic congestion and queueing. The King George Square and Roma St Stations are already operating at capacity while Queen Street Bus Station has, of course, been at capacity for many years.”

Cr Quirk said the Brisbane Metro would deliver a level of public transport service not seen before in Australia.

“Around the world millions of people in cities including Paris, Montreal, Miami, Tokyo and Hong Kong use this rubber tyred metro service every day,” he said.

“The Brisbane Metro is a step up from Light Rail – it’s a segregated, high frequency subway system with the potential to carry 30,000 passengers an hour, 10 times the potential capacity of the Gold Coast Light Rail.”

Brisbane Metro will create an interchange at Woolloongabba and Herston where people travelling on buses would transfer to and from the very high frequency subway system.

“Travel times from Woolloongabba to the CBD are estimated to take 6 ½ minutes compared to the scheduled 12 minutes but they often take up to 20 minutes because of bus congestion,” he said.

“Similarly, the Metro will provide travel times of 5 ½ minutes from Herston to the CBD compared to the current scheduled 9 minutes in the morning peak. As we know, this often takes much longer and will only get worse if we do nothing.”

Cr Quirk said Victoria Bridge would become a green bridge with general traffic banned and a new underground portal would be built under Adelaide Street to link North Quay and the King George Square busway.

There will also be changes at the Cultural Centre Station which will be placed underground with a smaller at surface station to support buses going to and from West End, such as the Blue CityGlider.

Cr Quirk said since the incoming State Government scrapped plans for a combined bus and train tunnel, it had refocussed on Cross River Rail which would not remove the problem that bus users face.

“Long term solutions are required for both the bus and rail networks and I do call for the State Government to be cooperative in terms of what we are proposing,” he said.

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 12:30 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Saturday, February 06 2016

Brisbane is set for a massive jobs boost with the Queensland Government formally adopting the development scheme for the renewal of the Queens Wharf Brisbane Priority Development Area.

The $3 billion Queens Wharf Brisbane Integrated Resort Development will deliver a world-class tourism, leisure and entertainment precinct for Queensland.

Deputy Premier and Minister for Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning Jackie Trad said the Queensland Government, developed the scheme which will support up to 2,000 jobs during construction and 8,000 ongoing jobs.

“This development will transform and rejuvenate the under-utilised south-western edge of the Brisbane CBD, attract significant investment to the city and most importantly, create jobs for Queensland families,” Ms Trad said.

The Queen’s Wharf Brisbane Priority Development Area development scheme provides the planning framework for the assessment of the Destination Brisbane Consortium proposal.

Public submissions to the development scheme supported the area redevelopment, the Government’s commitment to sub-tropical design and heritage protection and the delivery of improvements to the pedestrian and cycling network in the Priority Development Area.

“We invited the community, residents, and business operators to view the proposed development scheme and we received 37 written submissions. Some amendments were made to the proposed development scheme as a result of issues raised in these submissions,” said Ms Trad.

Queen’s Wharf Brisbane was declared a Priority Development Area on 28 November 2014 to facilitate the planning and delivery of an integrated resort development including a casino and other related development on the site.

All development applications will now be assessed against the development scheme.

The final Development Scheme also includes provisions for a Design Advisory Panel to assist in delivering a high-quality project for the benefit of all Queenslanders and visitors.

“This part of our city is one of the most culturally and historically significant sites in Brisbane, and the Design Advisory Panel will help ensure that Queen’s Wharf is a civic landmark,” Ms Trad said.

The Design Advisory Panel will be chaired by the Queensland Government Architect, and members will be drawn from the Queensland Urban Design and Places Panel.

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 12:11 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Friday, November 20 2015

According to ANZ's Stateometer Queensland has shown the greatest improvement over the September quarter, with the annual pace of growth rising nearer to its trend rate. Queensland is alos showing the second fastest pace of employment growth behind NSW.

ECONOMIC REBALANCING BROADENS TO QUEENSLAND

The rebalancing of the national economy continues with a solid pick-up in the annual pace of economic activity in Queensland.  As the third largest economy in Australia, signs of economic momentum are encouraging, and lend further support to signs that the non-mining sectors are picking up.

The decline in mining investment in Queensland has led to a sharp contraction in state final demand. While significant, this is perhaps not representative of activity in the broader economy, which has picked up noticeably over the year. The state’s monthly data flow picked up across household, business and labour force indicators. 

SERVICES LIFTING ECONOMIC ACTIVITY

Of key importance to the rebalancing of the national economy is the role of the services sectors. These industries, typically labour intensive, have helped to lift the trend employment-to-population ratio in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, and Queensland. These states are also the ones that are showing the strongest economic performance on the ANZ Stateometer.

Residential construction has and will continue to be important to supporting employment (in construction and several services industries). Commercial construction, outside of mining, should also play a greater role for some states, with the outlook for non-residential construction looking better in some sectors such as tourism and government-backed infrastructure. 

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 02:15 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, November 05 2015
Brisbane house prices still rising: HTW

Herron Todd White's November property clock notes that Brisbane house prices are still is in a rising phase. Brisbane is gaining a reputation as Australia's most affordable eastern capital with price growth potential, according to Herron Todd White.

As we noted last month Brisbane Units have however reached there peak and concens of over-suuply are building.

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 11:14 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, November 05 2015

The gap between Sydney and Brisbane house prices is starting to bear fruit for developers and vendors in the Queensland capital with dozens of southern buyers taking the plunge.

For about a year the gap between Sydney and Brisbane had been expanding but evidence of southern buyers jumping was not that noticeable by agents and developers.

Now it is.

Listed developers such as Stockland and Mirvac have seen more Sydney buyers for Brisbane artments and private developers such as Tim Gurner have also recorded as much as 40 per cent of investors were from Sydney.

The latest QBE LMI Australian Housing Outlook report prepared by BIS Shrapnel indicates some concerns over a potential oversupply of apartments in Brisbane.

National Property Research Co director Matthew Gross sees the price differential between ­Brisbane and Sydney as more ­influential in driving a property boom than the fundamentals such as the state's unemployment and population growth.

"It's bizarre but it's true," Mr Gross said.



 

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 10:06 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Wednesday, November 04 2015

I believe the reason most people procrastinate is FEAR. They are afraid of the risks associated with investing. They focus on all the things that could go wrong “the what ifs” and console themselves that it is much safer to nothing.

This is however untrue, as doing nothing and delaying actually increases risk and increases the problem.

If you decided you needed $2 million by retirement would you sooner have 30 years to accumulate it or 5 years?

If you start early then you have a lot of time to build to this number which means your risk level is low. You can take small incremental steps and you will be less concerned and impacted by the markets ups and downs.

Investing earlier means your investments have the opportunity to go through a number of investment cycles. Think of each investment cycle as an opportunity to double your money. The more cycles you go through the more chances to double your money.

And if things did go “pear-shaped” you still have time to start and rebuild again.

If you wait to take action until 5 years before retirement then you have a very steep hill to climb in a short space of time. To achieve your target you will need to take a more aggressive investment approach, you will be vulnerable to market volatility and if things go wrong you will not have time to rebuild. So this is a high risk approach.

The longer we delay action we are actually putting ourselves in a position where we will need to take greater risk to achieve our goals.

Yet this is actually what most people to. They delay and defer until they don’t have a choice and then take on riskier investments with promise of higher growth or higher returns. And that’s how we end up with situations like Storm Financial and Banksia where people lose everything.

As the saying goes “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today”.

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 09:16 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Monday, November 02 2015

According to a new QBE housing outlook prepared by BIS Shrapnel Brisbane is predicted to be the standout performer between 2015-16 and 2017-18. The report has forecast cumulative price growth of 13.2 per cent for houses and 2.3 per cent for units.

However in other capitals the picture is not so rosy.

In Sydney house price growth will slow from 22.3 per cent in 2014-15 to 7.3 per cent in 2015-16 – and then prices will then fall 2.7 per cent in 2016-17 and another 2.3 per cent in 2017-18. Unit median prices are expected to follow a similar trajectory, with growth of 14.6 per cent in FY15 to be followed by growth of 4.8 per cent in FY16, a decline of 2.7 per cent in FY17 and a decline of 3.5 per cent in FY18.

Hobart is forecast to experience a 4.9 per cent increase in house prices and a 2.2 per cent decrease in unit prices, while Canberra house prices are expected to rise 3.4 per cent and unit prices fall 2.7 per cent. Melbourne values will climb 2.8 per cent for houses but fall 4.9 per cent for units. Adelaide house prices will go up 0.8 per cent, while unit prices will fall 0.8 per cent.

Perth is forecast to experience a decline of 2.4 per cent in house prices and five per cent in unit prices, while Darwin is expected to see falls of 2.5 per cent for houses and 5.2 per cent for units.

Contact us to get your investment plans moving

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 02:26 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, October 29 2015

Queensland is tipped to replace New South Wales as the most optimistic state regarding the residential property market and lead the country for price and rental growth over the next two years, according to the NAB Residential Property Survey.

The NAB Residential Property Survey found market sentiment improved notably in Queensland and was less negative in SA/NT, softened in Victoria and NSW and fell to a new low in WA.

NAB Group chief economist Alan Oster said the NAB Residential Property Index fell -7 to +10 points in the September quarter - its second consecutive fall - with the index now below its long-term average (+14 points), however it’s not all negative as the overall picture masks some big differences across individual state markets.

“The survey also suggests that yield compression will continue as capital growth outpaces rental growth in all states,” he said.

“Foreign buyers were notably more active in Victoria, where they accounted for just over 1 in 4 of all new property sales and around 1 in 7 sales of established homes.

"In established property markets, foreign buyers accounted for around 11.3% of all apartment sales and 9.5% of house sales. These ratios were significantly higher in Victoria, where foreign buyers accounted for around 1 in 5 of all established apartment sales and just over 1 in 6 houses.

The report noted expectations for national house price growth over the next 1-2 years were scaled back to 1.5% and 1.8%.

"However, this also masked a notable improvement in Queensland, which is now predicted to be the leading state for capital growth in the next few years (2.6% & 3.4%). In contrast, expectations were cut back in NSW (2.2% & 1.8%) and Victoria (1.9% & 1.9%), and remain weak in SA/NT (-0.2% & 0.5%) and WA (-0.7% & 0.4%)," it read.

"In 2016, the slowdown in average national house price growth to 2.3% is largely driven by a moderation in both Sydney and Melbourne prices growth. NAB Economics expects house price growth to decelerate in Sydney to 1.2%, while price growth in Melbourne will ease to 3%. Brisbane is tipped to see the fastest house price growth (4.5%), and the Adelaide market is expected to improve (2.4%). Perth will remain weak, although price declines are forecast to ease."

 

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 10:21 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, October 29 2015
Brisbane The Favoured City For Interstate Investors: Survey

(Source: Propery Observer)

Most Australian investors believe Brisbane is a more affordable alternative to Sydney and Melbourne, according to a new survey by Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA).

Chair Ben Kingsley said investors were increasingly looking outside the two largest capital cities for assets.

“Investors are seeing Melbourne and Sydney performing very well and they’re looking for alternative markets that they think they can get in before the market starts to move,” Mr Kingsley told wire service AAP.

“Sydney’s market has started to slow and Melbourne is approaching the peak of the cycle.”

“Probably over the last six months there has been some speculation in the Sydney market, and the Melbourne market is enjoying a good Spring but I suspect that will slow down into 2016,” Mr Kingsley said.

Of the investors surveyed by PIPA, 58 per cent identified Brisbane as the capital city offering the best investment prospects, well ahead of the 17 per cent that chose Melbourne.

Just 11 per cent named Sydney, while six per cent chose Perth and five per cent selected Adelaide.

About 20 per cent of investors said they had put their investment plans on hold because of concerns about a property bubble.

Tighter lending conditions were the key worry for investors, as regulators sought to slow the growth of investor lending.

Price corrections, the removal of negative gearing, long periods of vacancy and oversupply of property are concerns.

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 07:08 am   |  Permalink   |  Email
Thursday, October 22 2015
Chinese Investment In Queensland Property Doubles

Chinese buyers nearly doubled their investment in Queensland property to almost $1 billion in 2014-15, according to The Australian.

The newspaper said Queensland’s Foreign Ownership of Land Register revealed ­investors from China spent $872.5 million buying land and property while Hong Kong investors spent $112 million.

The total of $984.5 million is more than double the $463 million spent by Chinese investors in Queensland the previous year.

China has been the top source of foreign investment in Queensland real ­estate for the past three years.

The Australian reported that Chinese buyers own 3585 parcels of land covering 237,490 hectares, while British investors own 5904 properties covering 2.2 million hectares.

Singapore has overtaken the US as the second-biggest source of foreign investment in real estate in Queensland. Singaporean investors spent $421m last financial year — nearly three times more than the year before.

Analyst Michael Matu­sik told The Australian that Chinese buyers were buying more than half the new apartments being sold off the plan in Brisbane and the Gold Coast.

Posted by: Greg Carroll AT 06:48 pm   |  Permalink   |  Email

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