Posted by admin on 7 March 2007
Single young male Brisbanites take note – our inner city is no place to meet ladies! Occasionally we see an interesting statistic from the ABS and their latest population figures show many of our inner suburbs have a big deficiency in resident females aged 20-39. Spring Hill is our worst, with 1.5 men for every woman in that age group! Bowen Hills (1.38) and the Valley (1.29) aren’t much better. If you want to stay reasonably close to town Albion’s your best bet, with just 0.83 men for each young lady.
ABS has confirmed Brisbane City Council is Australia’s fastest growing local authority, up another 14,000 residents in the year to June 2006. That’s now jumped almost 100,000 since 2001 (so that’s who’s drinking all our water!) New Farm is our most densely populated suburb with a massive 5,500 people per square kilometre, with Kangaroo Point not far behind at 5,200.
Tags: Albion Brisbane, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Bowen Hills Brisbane, Brisbane City Council, Kangaroo Point Brisbane, New Farm Brisbane, population growth Brisbane, Spring Hill Brisbane, the Valley Brisbane
Posted in Spring Hill, trends in Brisbane property | No Comments »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 10 January 2007
“Tens of thousands of new homes will be forced upon traffic-choked suburbs under a State Government plan that councils have condemned as being unrealistic and shrouded in secrecy.”
While this article ran in the Sydney Morning Herald this week it might soon be a Courier Mail headline. Brisbane City Council’s leaders face enormous pressure throughout 2007 to find room to house our surging population. And some unpopular decisions have to be made, or our state government may need to step in to ensure its own regional plan can be delivered.
The NSW govt is asking Bankstown for example to find room for 26,000 more homes and they say these will need to be built entirely in the place of existing ones. Residents are in for some changes: Woollahra has to plan for 2,800 new homes while they actually built just two in the past year!
Unlike our southern cousins we don’t have the scattering of dozens of local authorities since our 1925 amalgamation into the BCC ’super-council’. But while the planning here is hopefully more organised it won’t be any more readily accepted by inner-Brisbanites, who generally want both their leafy 600m2 and the economic prosperity that comes with being this nation’s fastest growing capital city. Projects like the pending FKP development over Milton rail station will test Council’s commitment to growth – they’re asking for 30 storeys where there’s not been more than 10 outside the CBD or Kangaroo Point before now. It’ll have 192 apartments, a 120 room hotel and offices and shops.
BCC’s Urban Renewal division have started community consultation and are preparing a plan for a large part of Milton, ultimately trying to find room for greater density. Albion has recently had similar treatment and watch for more “strategic planning” across inner Brisbane this year. More development applications will try Council on for size – Toowong’s ABC and Woolworths sites might well be contentious hotspots in 2007.
BCC elections roll around again in just over 12 months so perhaps a state govt directive or two would be a welcome intervention for some of our city pollies!
Tags: Albion Brisbane, Brisbane City Council, Brisbane housing supply, Kangaroo Point Brisbane, Milton Brisbane, population growth Brisbane, Toowong Brisbane, urban renewal Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure | 1 Comment »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 27 December 2006
Wondered why it’s so hard to find a plumber?! Latest stats out show Australian property owners are continuing to spend big on upgrading their homes. For the third time in a row major renovation spending (substantial work requiring licensed contractors) rose in the September quarter. More than 10,300 households spent almost $900 million, the highest amount in two years, adding to the pressure on construction prices that’s preventing new housing supply coming online. Secure in their jobs but possibly spooked from moving by interest rate rises, home owners seem content to keep investing in improving their homes.
The resources boom has already sucked large numbers of Queensland tradies out to the mines – one mining town mayor says their key recruitment criteria is a heartbeat! – and while long overdue, new Queensland government infrastructure works are adding to construction industry demands. One major Brisbane plumbing contractor told us he’s knocking back 20% of requests due to staffing shortages so for your leaking tap and general maintenance the days of ‘getting a few quotes’ seem gone for now!
Our property managers keep the best tradespeople available by ensuring easy access to the home, paying them every week, and giving them plenty of info on the problem ahead of time. Renovated homes will improve owners’ lifestyles and their suburbs’ median sale prices, but with inner Brisbane’s population growing strongly what we really appear to need is a few shiploads of skilled tradespeople to build us new homes and apartments!
We believe the continued growth in construction prices can only result in a significant surge in property values where housing demand is at its strongest. The price differential between established and new is just not sustainable – and we don’t see those plumbers cutting their prices anytime soon!
Tags: construction costs Brisbane, interest rates, population growth Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's sales market, architecture and renovation | 1 Comment »
Posted by Rob Honeycombe on 2 November 2006
It’s hard to not comment on the traffic crisis that’s hit Brisbane over the past two weeks. Uncovered (or caused?) by resurfacing works, a tiny sliver of a crack in one onramp of the Riverside Expressway brought Brisbane’s traffic network to its knees. Patience and solutions were both short on the ground.
Some commentators are already claiming that inner city property will boom further as a result. But even those of us that live close to the CBD have cars and while you can walk more often than those in the ‘burbs, it’s rare to find any city household without a car. We should encourage people out of their cars but no-one will walk more than 20 minutes in the 30 degree-plus subtropical heat of Brisbane. And until we have a light-rail system or similar efficient utility to match the convenience of Melbourne trams our cars will remain popular.
Additional river crossings have to be built or, despite the increasing appeal of city living (and to some extent because of it), inner Brisbane will choke on its popularity. Brisbane City Council is currently considering the future of the Hale Street Link from South Brisbane to Milton, and while our new office fronts the route (and we’d cop more noise and interruptions), we hope the short-term vision of some community leaders does not prevent this critical piece of infrastructure being built.
Brisbane’s population growth will not stop and this latest incident highlights our lack of political fortitude in recent years in making the tough decisions.
Tags: Brisbane City Council, Brisbane traffic, Hale Street Link Brisbane, population growth Brisbane, Riverside Expressway Brisbane
Posted in Brisbane's future & new infrastructure | No Comments »
