The financial meltdown has dissolved over $4 billion worth of central Brisbane’s proposed developments. The only question is, is this an unmitigated bad thing?
The Queensland government has cancelled the controversial Brookfield Multiplex’s $1.7 billion North Bank Project. Though it appears this project was the victim of planning rather financial reasons. The development which was dubbed “Brisbane’s Darling Harbour” – and not in a nice way, was never popular and the current financial crises is a very nice excuse. The development would have included a series of towers build along the under-developed north side of the Brisbane Rivers, some with up to 30 stories.
Tenants across Australia may have been through the worst of the rental crises and rising rents, for the moment anyway.
The latest figures from Australian Property Monitors (APM) report that the long period of sustained rental increases may have come to the end in most Australian cities. For the last quarter most Australian cities have recorded no increase. In fact the only city with strong rental growth was Darwin whose rental levels now equal Sydney’s. Other cities including Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and both the Gold and Sunshine coasts are flat or slightly down. APM senior economist Liam O’Hara is quoted as saying:
South Australia is riding a mining investment surge, which is increasing employment and driving record levels of overseas migration. Predictably property prices have been booming and look set to continue to do so.
