Posted by admin on 30 January 2012
Now Brisbane's 2nd tallest: Aurora Tower
The latest building to claim the title of Brisbane’s tallest is nearing completion. At 74 storeys Harry Triguboff’s Meriton Developments has powered through construction of “Soleil” in the CBD’s Admiralty precinct and will soon wrap up its 464 apartments.
The tower is just up the street from the previous title-holder, Aurora, completed in 2006 at a piddly 67 storeys with 478 homes. Harry of course has his next Brisbane project well under construction, bigger and better: the 81 level, 546 apartment Infinity Tower in North Quay.
To give you some idea, the top of the new Soleil building is near enough to the height of the lookout at Mt Coot-tha. Yep, it’s that high…
We’ve written before about the evolution of “super-towers” in our CBD but one topic not often discussed is the dangers of living so high above the ground. Families with kids are a more common sight in our apartments and new changes will soon be introduced to building laws to limit accidental falls. We were recently told that one inner-Brisbane primary school has 32% of their 700 students living in apartments. It’s the little kids that need plenty of supervision and the changes will cover all windows over 2m off the ground (pretty much the second floor of any building). New buildings will need reinforced screens or window locks to prevent openings past 125mm.
The Meriton projects in Brisbane’s CBD don’t include open balconies in their designs and balconies are one hazard that might be impossible to regulate for safety. How do you prevent light furniture being pushed to the edge, a chair used as a climbing point? Does every balcony door need to meet pool fence guidelines? Are you feeling sick in the stomach too, just thinking about a child crawling near a highrise handrail?
This isn’t a new hazard and you’d have to say that reports of injury are remarkably scarce. But we are becoming more vertical as a city.
Demographer Bernard Salt called it the “Manhattan-isation” of Brisbane and it’s happening whether we want it or not, with all its challenges and opportunities. Many of the residents of these new super-towers will thrive in their homes, and we pray those with small children will take every possible care.
Posted in Brisbane CBD, architecture and renovation, trends in Brisbane property | 1 Comment »
Posted by admin on 16 January 2012
So here’s Brisbane city’s skyline today. Can you spot the difference to the view you’d normally see from the cliffs at Kangaroo Point? And, no, it’s not the dreary, cloudy
day that makes you think you’re somewhere in Melbourne!
There’s no cranes.
Just out of shot to the left there are cranes on the new academic building at QUT and out of sight in the distance at North Quay there’s cranes working busily on the new Meriton Infinity Apartments. But for the first time in what must be many, many years, this view doesn’t include construction of a big apartment or office building.
Tags: construction Brisbane, Infinity Apartments North Quay, Kangaroo Point Brisbane, Meriton Developments Brisbane, new apartments Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane CBD, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 19 December 2011
Posted in Brisbane CBD, just for fun! | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 21 July 2011
Rents rose strongly in the June quarter, our median 2 bed apartment rising $40 to a record $580 per week. The downturn in international students at the start of 2011
had slowed the market but a resurgent corporate demand has seen us achieve some great results for landlords. The supply of rental homes in this postcode is slowly starting to rise again, but we’re still below the levels of 2 years ago. The CBD’s record rents are steadily encouraging tenants to look up the hill and, while affordability is affecting some tenants, Spring Hill landlords are benefiting.
Note: RTA stats quoted here cover all of postcode 4000 including Spring Hill and Brisbane CBD
If you would like a rental appraisal for your property just give our head of Property Management – Annie von Rudzinksi a call on 07 3214 6899.
For median rent information visit www.whatrentmyhome.com.au
Tags: Brisbane apartments, brisbane cbd rents, Brisbane housing supply, Brisbane property manager, Brisbane real estate agents, Brisbane rents, cbd rents, investment property, median rents Brisbane, property management Brisbane, Rental Market, rental supply Brisbane, Spring Hill property manager, Spring Hill Real Estate Agent, Spring HIll REnts, tenants Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Spring Hill | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 23 April 2011
One thing that graphs do really well is illustrate trends, and the simplest analysis of the charts below show that supply of rental housing in the city is not coming online in big enough numbers. In fact there’s now less homes available for rent in postcode 4000 than there were 2 years ago. We’d suggest it’s only the easing of demand from international students that’s kept a relative lid on rents so far. They’ve been a huge part of our CBD demand for some years so the drop in student numbers this past 6 months could have seen a dip in rents. But it’s now over 2 years since we saw any residential building completed in the area and rents have held firm.
Watch this space over the next quarter - CBD, fully furnished apartments especially have seen some really strong rents achieved over the past couple of weeks.
Go to www.WhatRentMyHome.com.au to see current median rents for other Brisbane suburbs. Note: RTA stats quoted here cover all of postcode 4000 including Spring Hill.
Tags: Brisbane rental properties, Brisbane rents, rental prices Brisbane, rental supply Brisbane, www.WhatRentMyHome.com.au
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market, Spring Hill | No Comments »
Posted by admin on 28 January 2011
It looks like one of the first major projects to be “postponed” due to the floods will be the proposed cross river rail project, the subway that was to put new rail stations into the lower CBD, Woolloongabba and other key inner city locations.
When the government first flagged this in 2008 we pricked our ears up – property owners near those locations could see a major improvement in their values as the commute times around the CBD improve. Now the possible 2016 completion has been harpooned and the nasty choking point for a lot of rail traffic, the South Brisbane rail bridge, will just get more and more congested.
This isn’t great news, and hopefully the postponement is a short one. One report today said it might only be a 2 year delay. Let’s hope.
Tags: Brisbane subway, Brisbane traffic
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane's future & new infrastructure, Woolloongabba | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 15 November 2010
Dog and cat lovers of Queensland have started a silent revolution, and it’s coming to an apartment building near you! Last year we reported on a resident who disputed her body corp’s right to turf out her moggy. Their by-laws said a pet could be kept with consent of the committee, so the Adjudicator found they couldn’t impose a complete ban on pets. Unless there was good reason to keep the animal out, approval must be given.
This “only with committee approval” by-law is the most common dealing with pets – the vast majority of buildings have similar wording. So despite this and similar precedents been set, the anti-pets brigade have been relaxing where their building has clear by-laws that simply say “no pets whatsoever”, full stop.
But a September Tribunal judgement has opened the doggy-door even wider. In this matter the Adjudicator declared that any blanket ban was invalid because each animal should be considered on its merits. A body corp, they said, has no power to take away the freedom of a person to own an animal.
And an order handed down last week for the “212 on Margaret” tower in Brisbane’s CBD has confirmed this view, quoting the precedent above in ruling the building’s no pets by-law to be invalid. In this case the pet owner proposed a new by-law that provided guidelines for the keeping of animals, items that would ensure pets wouldn’t impact on neighbours’ quiet enjoyment. The Tribunal gave it the nod.
There’s only been a handful of precedents set and we’re not lawyers – seek sound advice before you act. But the message to bodies corporate seems clear. You can regulate the keeping of pets to ensure their impacts on your building and its residents are minimised. But you can’t ban them.
This might send the fur flying at some upcoming AGM’s.
Tags: body corp, Body Corporate and Community Management Act Queensland, body corporate issues Queensland, pets in apartments Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane's sales market, real estate marketing, trends in Brisbane property | 3 Comments »
Posted by admin on 25 October 2010
The big news in the latest data is the recent growth of the rental pool in Brisbane’s inner city. After 3 years of shrinking supply 2010 has reversed that trend and tenants now have more properties to choose from. Some of this may be due to investors returning to the sales market, along with “hotel” apartments been placed back in the long term rental pools. The past year has effectively seen no rent increase ($540/week) but for the most part the area proved resilient and it’s the corporate and executive rental markets that have been most effected. There’s a much smaller number of rented houses in the area and their rent has firmed – now $520 for a 3 bed.
This is still far and away the most expensive rental destination in Brisbane and the stable rents confirm that the area still needs more new apartments to fill demand. While the new developments of 2003 to 2006 did boost supply enormously the number of rental homes on offer to tenants is not growing at the rate needed.
Note: RTA stats quoted here cover all of postcode 4000 including Spring Hill.
Tags: median rents Brisbane, rental supply Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane's rental market | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 3 August 2010
Why would both a government and an opposition look to dramatically reduce Australia’s fourth largest export industry? International students are big business for inner city Brisbane and if you’re a landlord or property owner in the area the current election threat to slice their number is likely to have a direct impact on you.
Generating revenue of $19 billion in 2009, a BRW Magazine report says Australia hosted 751,000 international students last year. Those who watch Brisbane’s CBD rental market closely will tell you much of our housing demand has been from this group. It’s no exaggeration to say that whole residential towers depend on students for survival. Take a walk down Albert Street yourself. And this isn’t a new trend.
Not to mention the food, travel, entertainment, retail and other industries that benefit. Many of these students are great spenders! Access Economics estimate that for every $1 on education they spend $1.90 elsewhere. Brisbane’s Lord Mayor says this is our city’s largest export service industry and Universities Australia’s CEO says a 50% drop in international students would cost us 60,000 jobs. But Labor’s Sustainable Population Minister says cuts in numbers are warranted and many use their student visas as a “pathway for permanent residency”. The LNP’s Tony Abbott says they’re the “largest contributor to net overseas migration”.
Politics and race aside this is big business for inner Brisbane and especially for property owners. Yes the trend to inner city living is strong but a big chunk of our demand is from international students, especially in the CBD itself. Drop them and we may see a big reduction in rents.
What do you think? We’d love to have your comments.
Tags: Brisbane apartments, Brisbane rents, international students Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane landlords, Brisbane's rental market, trends in Brisbane property | 4 Comments »
Posted by admin on 30 June 2010
Brisbane CBD’s Soleil Apartments are rising quickly on Adelaide Street, with the Meriton team adding another floor at a rate of about 1 every 10 days! Our team had a quick hard hat tour today and there’s no doubt this will be an impressive building when it’s completed.
Meriton have sold a good number of the apartments and it’s encouraging to see their cranes on the city skyline. There’s not many others under construction!
Tags: Adelaide Street Brisbane, Meriton Developments Brisbane, Soleil Apartments Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane CBD, Brisbane's sales market | No Comments »
