PCA Questions New Australian Population Strategy
A CONTROVERSIAL new population strategy – which sets no population target at all – has concerned peak property bodies.
The Gillard government’s first population strategy, Sustainable Australia, Sustainable Communities, is “political in nature’ according to the Property Council of Australia chief executive Peter Verwer, who added it contained “little more than motherhood statements, previously announced government initiatives and ongoing government programs.”
“This is not a detailed plan for managing population growth and to describe it as a policy or a strategy would be stretching credibility,” Mr Verwer was quoted as saying in The Australian. “We need to grow our population, which needs taxation revenue to fund vital services,” he added.
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RENTAL vacancy levels increased last month according to SQM Research.
IN A positive move for middle-aged and older Australians, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has ordered banks to relax rules that restricted borrowing capacity.
A REPORT by finance giant QBE says one in 10 mortgage holders would not be able to make their repayments if interest rates rise by one quarter of a per cent.
AUSTRALIA’s almost uninterrupted strong economic run – which has resulted in an almost uninterrupted consumption binge – is piquing the interest of North America’s major retail businesses.
CEDAR Woods Properties has rejected a $310 million takeover offer, saying that purchase price undervalued the company.
THE commercial property sector’s biggest fundraiser is about to peddle off again, though thankfully for the Victorian participants, the weather is looking calmer than last year.
AUSTRALIA’s prestige property market appears to still be in deceleration mode.
GOOGLE has shelved plans to feature real estate listings within its Google Maps.
THE largest private owner of forestry land in Australia is now a Canadian pension fund.
INVESTOR demand for Australian hotels surged last year.
THE Sydney and Perth residential sectors may have been the basket case of the country in recent years, but all that is expected to change, according to new research by MacroPlan.
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CENTRO Properties Group is expected to list for sale a $4 billion portfolio of prime retail assets, as its bankers call for the company to settle its debts.
DEXUS Wholesale Property Fund has paid Colonial Direct Property Investment Fund $231 million for a portfolio of 13 industrial portfolios on Australia’s east coast.
SYDNEY based developer and fund manager Lend Lease has announced an agreement to develop a swag of national, master planned residential and community projects with Japan based Sekisui House.
A MAJOR but confidential Expression of Interest campaign seeking residential rental properties – believed to be for the government’s affiliated affordable and social housing agencies – has closed after almost six months.
THE federal and state governments are continuing to buy development sites and vacant properties that it can convert into public housing.
KOREAN-based investors have emerged as one of the biggest buyers of Australian commercial real estate since the 2008 economic downturn.
AUSTRALIA’s lucrative student accommodation sector is at risk, with cash strapped United States universities said to be preparing to open their doors to more foreign graduates in the wake of the economic downturn.
THE levels of waste being uncovered as part of the Rudd government’s Building the Education Revolution are continuing to come to light with a report in The Australian showing school canteens built by the Catholic school system under the controversial $16.2 billion program, are up to five times cheaper than those delivered by the government.
WOOLWORTHS has launched a campaign to sell 31 Australian shopping centres and three development sites.
TAXPAYERS will flip the costs defending the Rudd government against an expected 800 class action law suits, as a result of the bungled $2.5 billion home insulation program.
THE hugely successful Direct Factory Outlets property portfolio looks likely to be heading overseas, with British Based Pradera Asset Management reportedly the frontrunner to buy the assets.
RAWLINSONS – the construction industry’s cost handbook – is going a long way into highlighting waste in the ALP government’s $16.2 billion Building the Education Revolution program.
EDWARD Chancellor, the man who predicted the global credit led economic downturn in 2007, has referred to Australia as being amidst an “unsustainable housing bubble” with values potentially more than 50 per cent above their fair market value.
THE Federal Government’s contentious plan to build record amounts of commission flats and social housing around your streets, and without proper community consultation – seems to finally have caught the attention of the wider community.
THE Federal Government has scrapped its blotched $2.45 billion insulation scheme, designed to save jobs – but instead, now looking to cost them.
ALMOST 12,000 Australians who took advantage of the ALP Government’s First Home Owner’s Grant are struggling to meet their mortgage repayments.
The Real Estate Institute of Australia (REIA) has urged the Government to review the amount of the First Home Buyers Grant (FHOG) in its Pre-Budget Submission, so that it maintains its relativity to when it was introduced in 2000.
COUNCILS are being forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars protecting historic cemeteries from vandals.
THE Reserve Bank of Australia has given mortgage holders an early Christmas present, by increasing interest rates just 0.25 per cent this week.
THE director of Australia’s largest, independent, residential land developer – Nigel Satterley – has been appointed by the Property Councl of Australia to head the divisions Residential Development Council.
IT was designed to replace an eyesore – but Melbourne’s high profile Federation Square site, across from the Flinders Street station, has been dubbed one of the 10 ugliest buildings in the world, according to a Virtual Tourist report.