Victims' legal anguish
Anthony Marx May 04, 2006

...... The Courier-Mail revealed in October that Mr Quinlivan is the power behind Gold Coast-based Scottsdale Homes, which is using some of his old strategies including cold calls, free seminars, home visits and cheap flights to southeast Queensland to attract out-of-state investors. He denies selling over-priced property.

Mr Bilborough was identified last year as the key figure behind Gold Coast company Financial and Property Solutions, which has conducted wealth creation seminars in regional Queensland and NSW and been tied to a proposed housing development in Warwick. [READ MORE]
 

Valad, Marsim in $500m residential development
Paddy Manning April 27, 2006

VALAD Property Group and private developer Marsim have joined forces to deliver a $500 million Paradise Point residential development on the Gold Coast, Queensland, and flagged further joint ventures.

Valad has kicked in $20 million to form the 50-50 joint venture through its newly formed Valad Capital Services division, which has invested more than $150 million in development JVs since it was established last November.

Valad Capital Services chief executive Paul Notaras said the Marsim joint venture could eventually result in the creation of co-branded funds, such as wholesale development funds.

Although there were no plans to do so at this stage, Mr Notaras said: "You might even see this project wind up in a fund."

Marsim chief executive Murry Offord said the company had a $300 million to $400 million development pipeline and there would be further joint ventures with Valad.

"Neither party sees this as a one-off," Mr Offord said.

Current Marsim projects included the $200 million Twin Peaks Golf and Country Club subdivision in Penrith, Sydney, the $80 million Centennial Apartments project in Kensington, Sydney, and a $40 million project in Newcastle.

Mr Offord said Marsim was looking at further development opportunities in Newcastle.

Paradise Point is Marsim's first Queensland project, and Mr Offord said that because of its scale, "we always were going to partner it". Balmain NB arranged the deal with Valad and will arrange debt finance.

Last month the Gold Coast City Council approved the Paradise Point master plan, including 352 apartments, 118 villas and 70 marina berths. Prices will range from $600,000 to $3 million.

A small retail component of 600sqm, to include a convenience store and other shops, was designed not to compete with local shops.

The 11ha site, halfway between Coolangatta and Brisbane airports, is on a peninsula and has 1.5km of deepwater frontage. The staged project will be marketed to owner-occupiers from the last quarter of 2006 with construction commencing early next year.

It is not the first time that Valad and Marsim people have worked together.

Five years ago Mr Notaras and Valad Capital Services colleague Alastair Wright, when working at GE Capital, joint-ventured with Marsim on a 140-unit development.

Valad shares closed up 1.5c to $1.32 yesterday.

Room for more migrants: Costello
06/04/2006 Herald-Sun

FEDERAL Treasurer Peter Costello says skilled migration could increase in the light of low unemployment figures released today, but he won't say by how much.

The labour force figures showed the jobless rate fell to five per cent in March, from 5.2 per cent in February.
"I think it's possible to run an increased immigration program focussing on skills. I'm not going to put a number on it," Mr Costello told reporters in Melbourne today.

He said the government had lifted the immigration intake quite considerably in recent years, and focussed on skilled migrants because of a skills shortage in Australia and because the new arrivals were more likely to secure jobs.

"So I think we can continue to run a pretty strong migration program with figures like this, but bear in mind of course that we are also looking to get Australians born here in work," Mr Costello said.

Opposition Leader Kim Beazley yesterday said the Howard government had increased skilled migration at the expense of training Australians and therefore had created a skills shortage.

Mr Beazley said he would invest more in training to address the skills shortage in Australia if he won the next election.

The federal government had brought in an additional 270,000 skilled migrants, while 300,000 people had been turned away from TAFE institutions since 1998, Mr Beazley said.

When asked if the Coalition was being hurt by its policy on skilled migration, Mr Costello today said the government was focussed on training Australians but importing skills was an interim solution.

Mr Costello blamed the states for the present shortage, saying they had made a disastrous mistake in closing technical colleges.

"Now the Commonwealth is going to bring them back and we are going to give them a prestige that they didn't have in the past," he said.

"We are going to set up technical colleges to get skills going, but all of this takes time.

"If you start at an Australian technical college in year 11 today, it's going to be four, five or six years before you are fully trained and out in the workforce.

"So you do have to make some of this up with migration, but it should never be to the detriment of young Australians having an opportunity."

A Productivity Commission report released in January found Australia should significantly increase its level of skilled migrants to make the workforce more highly qualified.

The report into the economic impacts of migration and population growth advocated an increase of 50 per cent on skilled migrant levels of 2004-05.

No battling this bulging coastline
Amanda Hodge April 05, 2006
The Australian

FOR those who have never lived there, the Gold Coast is an intriguing experiment in regional gigantism.

With almost 500,000 residents - more than the state of Tasmania - squeezed into a coastal belt just 50km from Brisbane, the popular impression is of a high-rise city too big for its bones.

Yet new figures show the Gold Coast added 12,600 people to its population last year and is planning to accommodate a further 250,000 in the next 20 years.

"Seachange on steroids" is how National Seachange Taskforce chief Alan Stokes describes it.

"It's just an extraordinary story," he said.

"The number of people going into the Gold Coast every year is almost equivalent to the whole of Port Douglas. It is a national phenomenon."

This phenomenon reflects an unrelenting drift to coastal regions outside Australia's major cities.

New Australian Bureau of Statistics population figures show predictions of a slowdown in the seachange trend has failed to eventuate.

Queensland and West Australian coastal councils are growing at double and triple the national 1.2 per cent average, respectively.

Wanneroo Shire Council, north of Perth, took in an extra 7094 residents last financial year, lifting its total population 7.1per cent to 112,000.

South of Perth, Mandurah grew by 5.9per cent and in Queensland, Hervey Bay grew by 4.8 per cent.

Overall coastal growth rates are 60per cent higher than the national average.

Taskforce chair Joe Natoli says growth is being driven by factors such as a shift from manufacturing to information and service industries, a desire for a better lifestyle and the high cost of housing in capital cities.

The latter two were powerful motivators for Errol Stratton, a 33-year-old marine electrician, who moved with his pregnant wife Effie and their two young children from Auckland last September when his employer opened an office in the booming Gold Coast boat-building industry.

Two weeks ago, the Strattons moved into their very first home.

"It's fantastic, we could never have bought in Auckland," Mr Stratton said yesterday.

"All around us there are young families. Every night I get home from work and I'm able to put the kids in the strollers and we go for a lovely walk along the Coomera River. There's no high-rises, just a few fishermen.

"There's so much growth -- you can feel it and you're aware of all the opportunity."

Gold Coast Deputy Mayor David Power said the Strattons reflected not only the continued coastal shift but a marked demographic change in the region.

In four years, the average age of a Gold Coast resident has dropped by six years to just 33.

"We're no longer God's waiting room," he said triumphantly.

"A lot of people don't realise that 25per cent of the city is available for urban development and the rest is conservation and agriculture.

"We're constantly criticised but if we're so bad, why do they keep coming?"

New primary school for northern Gold Coast
27 March 2006

Premier Peter Beattie has announced a new primary school will be built on the Gold Coast to cater for the growing demand for student places.

State Cabinet today approved the new school, which is estimated to cost $36 million and be operational by 2008.

"This area is experiencing strong residential growth from families, and is growing faster than most areas along the Brisbane-Gold Coast corridor," Beattie says.

"A new primary school will serve the needs of the community as well as attract further investment into the area, which is important for a buoyant economy.

"We have a couple of possible sites in mind for the new school but there will be consultation with the local community before anything is finalised.

"This new school is a continuation of our commitment to provide quality education facilities on the northern Gold Coast. Since 2000, we have built Pacific Pines State High School, the Upper Coomera State College and the Pacific Pines State School.

"I would expect construction of the new school to get under way early next year and the doors to open to the first intake of students in 2008."

Education Minister Rod Welford says planning and design of the new school will commence later this year. It will be built in the Pacific Pines area.

"The new school will incorporate modern design principles and include a resource centre, administration block, tuckshop, a covered play area and sports oval," he says.

"At the same time, we are providing enhancements at two existing local schools, including a new ramp at Pacific Pines State School to enhance disability access from the street. This will also improve accessibility for parents of children in prams when attending meetings, functions and activities at the school.

"There will also be an $80,000 security upgrade including closed circuit television cameras and sensor lights at Nerang State High School."

Queensland remains the growth state
Gold Coast City Council 23/03/2006

New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal Queensland has retained its title as the growth state.

Queensland's population grew by a staggering 75,900 last financial year. The growth rate of 2 per cent was easily the best in the nation ahead of West Australia at 1.6 per cent.

Coastal house prices enjoy their place in the sun
Andrew Fraser
The Weekend Australian 18/03/2006

QUEENSLAND coastal centres are the hot property of Australian real estate, with house prices continuing to rise despite the market having cooled in southern cities.

House prices in Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton, which are close to coal mines in the Bowen Basin and benefit greatly from the mining boom, have gone up by over 20 per cent in the past year.
Capital city house prices have either fallen or risen only slightly over the same period. Figures released yesterday by property analysts Residex show that in the 12 months to the end of February, house prices in Sydney went backwards by 3 per cent while prices rose in Melbourne by 5.7 per cent and in Brisbane by 5.1 per cent.

Read the entire article here

Big smoke, even bigger prices
Anthony Klan
The Weekend Australian 18/03/2006

. . . . . Demographer and partner at accounting firm KPMG, Bernard Salt, says Australia's four biggest cities are expected to increase their share of the population over the next 20 years.

"So, too, will places such as the Gold Coast and selected regional areas on the eastern seaboard and the southwest cape," Salt says, citing downshifting baby boomers seeking seachange and treechange lifestyles. "The areas that will lose market share over the next 20 years are the weaker capital cities and the bush."

Read the entire article here

Real estate booms in regions
John Stapleton and Maurice Dunlevy
The Advertiser 13/03/2006

WHILE residential real estate markets have stagnated in five mainland capitals, once shunned near-city towns are experiencing a bonanza.

Bunbury in Western Australia is one of Australia's fastest-growing areas, with some prices doubling while Perth struggles.
South Australia has Mt Barker, a rural community with metropolitan house prices.

Buying near Geelong, Victoria, can mean paying as much as you would in Melbourne's best suburbs -- 80km away.

Prices have stalled in Brisbane, but the boom continues on the Gold Coast and along most of the Queensland coast.

The trend is no more apparent than in New South Wales. Margaret Dixon paid $76,000 for a 0.80ha block outside Otford, just south of Sydney, in 1976 and expects to get more than $2 million for her hilltop property.

Mrs Dixon, 59, said the property had seemed remote at the time -- with no milk, bread or mail deliveries and no running water. "I wasn't working, I had three children under five, but my husband worked enormously hard to pay it off," she said.

"If someone had told me I would be living in a $2 million property I wouldn't have believed them."

What was once seen as remoteness is now branded as valuable privacy, and what used to be a long trip to the city is little more than standard commuting time today.

Helensburg PRDnationwide director Doug Svensen said he expected a 25 per cent increase in the next 12 months for the best properties just south of Sydney.

Waterfront prices at Thirroul, on the outskirts of industrial Wollongong, are on par with beachfront homes at suburban Cronulla. "It doesn't matter if it's Thirroul or Cronulla, because both cost $1.2 million," he said.

Major city property markets continued to show signs of recovery over the weekend. Australian Property Monitors said clearance rates in Sydney were at 54 per cent, a jump of almost 14 per cent, with total sales worth $71 million, compared with only $54 million for the same time last year.

Clearance rates in Melbourne were a high 60 per cent, up 10 per cent on the same weekend last year and, with a dollar value of $48million, more than double the value of properties sold in the same weekend last year.