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Queensland’s $11.6 billion Spending for 2007 – the largest building program in the nation.

Summary:

• The population of Queensland grows by 1500 people every week – 1000 in South-East Queensland alone.
• In December 2005, Queensland’s population topped 4 million people.
• The state’s population is projected to grow by a further 1.54 million people over the next two decades.
• By then, Queensland is predicted to overtake Victoria as the second most populous state in the country.
• For more than a decade, Queensland’s economy has grown faster than the national average.
• Infrastructure and business investment are at record high levels.
• Queensland’s construction workforce grew by 44 800 in the last two years, driven by the state’s strong economy and rapidly growing need for housing, services and infrastructure.
• Overseas exports grew 34% in 2005/06 to reach a record $35.4 billion.

Source: www.infrastructure.qld.gov.au

SYDNEY is in the grip of a second property crisis with the supply of new houses falling to levels not seen since 1975 and research forecasting rents to rise by as much as 40 per cent within two years.The results of a study, by BIS Shrapnel, has shown construction of new homes in Sydney has hit an historical low, rivalled only by the slump of the mid 70s.

Coupled with housing affordability, low to middle income earners are being warned that prices are likely to spike again within four years with “steep price increases”.

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SOUTHEAST Queensland’s growing pains are set to pile even more pressure on both the residential and commercial property markets.
New home buyers and renters will continue to bear the pain as the influx of 1200 new residents a week puts immense strain on the construction sector.

“We are not building enough houses to house the growth in the population. We are getting pressure in the rental market, vacancy rates are very low and rents are going up at twice the rate of inflation,” Housing Industry Association Queensland executive director Warwick Temby said.

“These are early signs that there’s pressure in the market for either more price growth, or more construction, or a bit of both.”

Source: Courier Mail Newspaper

GOLD Coast Airport is to have a state-of-the-art $100 million terminal as the centrepiece of a sprawling $1 billion-plus business precinct with high rises, office towers and a train line.

Airport chief executive Paul Donovan unveiled the radical plans yesterday, saying the 460m runway extension under construction now was only the tip of the iceberg for the airport.

“It’s going to be a small city,” he said. “We are going to create a terminal and an airport precinct that has the ‘wow’ factor. Mr Donovan said the runway extension would be a huge money spinner for the airport and the Gold Coast, allowing in fully loaded Boeing 767s and 787s and luring carriers flying direct from the US, South-East Asia, Japan, China and the Middle East.

The bonanza would pay for a new $100 million terminal that is already in the design stages and is ‘just a few years away’, according to Mr Donovan. “In 10 years we should be satisfying the people in our catchment area with direct flights throughout Asia and connecting long-haul flights from there. Effectively you could fly everywhere,” said Mr Donovan