JayT
June 4th, 2005, 11:12 AM
Tale of two cities shows best and worst of times
Andrew Fraser and George Megalogenis
June 04, 2005
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15502832%255E25658,00.html
http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5014193,00.jpg
ON a clear day, sitting atop the nation's largest vertical village, crane driver Ross McMillan can see two economies - one still moving up, the other on the slide.
To the north is Brisbane, the capital of the nation's fastest-rising state. To the south is NSW, where the economy is sickly. The view from Mr McMillan's workplace in the crane on the 80-storey Q1 on the Gold Coast is a symbol and a dividing line.
It embodies the exuberence of the minerals boom that keeps Queensland and Western Australia rolling in cash.
These states, in turn, are propping up the national economy as its former growth engines, NSW and Victoria, report the clearest signs yet of a slowdown: falling property prices.
Official figures released yesterday show that house prices fell nationally by 1.3per cent in the year to the March quarter.
But the losses were contained to the two biggest cities.
Sydney's dropped by 3.4per cent and Melbourne's by 1.7per cent. By contrast, Perth recorded a 9.9per cent jump in house prices, while Brisbane's improved a more modest 2.5 per cent.
At Q1, all of the "cheap" apartments, with an average cost of $700,000, are already sold, and only the highest 30 -- with prices running from $1.5million to $3.5million -- are open to the market, although the penthouse has already been sold to Japanese restaurateur Akeo Kakemoto for $8.9million.
Most of Q1's buyers so far have been Australian.
Thirty per cent are from NSW, 22per cent from Queensland, 15per cent from Victoria, 6per cent from the rest of Australia and 6per cent from New Zealand.
The remaining 21per cent are from the rest of the world.
But those high-rollers paying top dollar for the prime apartments will also have to confront a climate more chilly than the balmy Gold Coast below.
Mr McMillan, said temperatures up there were often 5-10C cooler than on the beach the apartment fronts.
"You can be in shorts and a T-shirt on the ground, but up here, you have to wear overalls and jumpers," he said.
"It gets very cloudy sometimes, too. There are days when we can't even see the ground."
On a clear day, he can see 100km north to Cape Moreton, which is northeast of Brisbane, and south to Cape Byron, again some 100km away.
Mr McMillian can also see his former workplace in Brisbane - the crane on top of the 53-storey Riparian Plaza in the middle of Brisbane's CBD.
"When you look out to sea you can see whales moving up the coast - the water is really clear - and you can pick the whales spouting," he said.
But the unpredictable nature of tropical weather is also an issue. Storms with winds of well over 100km/h can arise very quickly, and when these happen, Mr McMillan said, "you just turn the crane around so it's backing into the wind and then you hang on".
Q1 will become Australia's latest vertical village when more than 1000 people move into the 527 apartments in the building when it is finished in early September.
Sahba Abedian, joint managing director with his father of Q1's developer Sunland, Soheil, said the average buyer was someone in their late 40s or 50s who planned to live there part-time.
"In the past, people have bought these units and rented them out when they're not using them, but what most of these buyers intend to do is spend some time living there then lock them up when they're not," he said.
Q1 has a rival for the title of "the world's tallest residential building". Melbourne's Eureka Tower has 88 storeys and 554 apartments, and is 300m tall - 22.5m shorter than Q1.
But Eureka Tower has applied for permission to build a 50m telecommunications facility on top, making it 22.5m higher than Q1.
The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat will be asked to rule on which is taller after both are finished.
"But they have ruled in the past that spires are permissable and telecom towers aren't, so we're confident," said Mr Abedian.
While Q1 has been a poster child for the Gold Coast property industry, evidence emerged this week that there were more and more high rises being built on the coast but less and less being sold.
A report on the Queensland property scene released this week shows that between the February and March quarter there was a 13 per cent increase in the number of units being constructed in high rises on the Gold Coast, but a 28 per cent drop in the number of unconditional sales.
The Midwood Investment Report claims that in the February quarter there were 2708 units under construction on the coast, but in the May quarter there were 3057.
But in an illustration of how the Gold Coast property market works, there are a staggering 5012 units being marketed on the Gold Coast - meaning that in addition to the units under construction, there are about 2000 units being sold "off the plan" before construction even starts on a building.
Andrew Fraser and George Megalogenis
June 04, 2005
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,15502832%255E25658,00.html
http://network.news.com.au/image/0,10114,5014193,00.jpg
ON a clear day, sitting atop the nation's largest vertical village, crane driver Ross McMillan can see two economies - one still moving up, the other on the slide.
To the north is Brisbane, the capital of the nation's fastest-rising state. To the south is NSW, where the economy is sickly. The view from Mr McMillan's workplace in the crane on the 80-storey Q1 on the Gold Coast is a symbol and a dividing line.
It embodies the exuberence of the minerals boom that keeps Queensland and Western Australia rolling in cash.
These states, in turn, are propping up the national economy as its former growth engines, NSW and Victoria, report the clearest signs yet of a slowdown: falling property prices.
Official figures released yesterday show that house prices fell nationally by 1.3per cent in the year to the March quarter.
But the losses were contained to the two biggest cities.
Sydney's dropped by 3.4per cent and Melbourne's by 1.7per cent. By contrast, Perth recorded a 9.9per cent jump in house prices, while Brisbane's improved a more modest 2.5 per cent.
At Q1, all of the "cheap" apartments, with an average cost of $700,000, are already sold, and only the highest 30 -- with prices running from $1.5million to $3.5million -- are open to the market, although the penthouse has already been sold to Japanese restaurateur Akeo Kakemoto for $8.9million.
Most of Q1's buyers so far have been Australian.
Thirty per cent are from NSW, 22per cent from Queensland, 15per cent from Victoria, 6per cent from the rest of Australia and 6per cent from New Zealand.
The remaining 21per cent are from the rest of the world.
But those high-rollers paying top dollar for the prime apartments will also have to confront a climate more chilly than the balmy Gold Coast below.
Mr McMillan, said temperatures up there were often 5-10C cooler than on the beach the apartment fronts.
"You can be in shorts and a T-shirt on the ground, but up here, you have to wear overalls and jumpers," he said.
"It gets very cloudy sometimes, too. There are days when we can't even see the ground."
On a clear day, he can see 100km north to Cape Moreton, which is northeast of Brisbane, and south to Cape Byron, again some 100km away.
Mr McMillian can also see his former workplace in Brisbane - the crane on top of the 53-storey Riparian Plaza in the middle of Brisbane's CBD.
"When you look out to sea you can see whales moving up the coast - the water is really clear - and you can pick the whales spouting," he said.
But the unpredictable nature of tropical weather is also an issue. Storms with winds of well over 100km/h can arise very quickly, and when these happen, Mr McMillan said, "you just turn the crane around so it's backing into the wind and then you hang on".
Q1 will become Australia's latest vertical village when more than 1000 people move into the 527 apartments in the building when it is finished in early September.
Sahba Abedian, joint managing director with his father of Q1's developer Sunland, Soheil, said the average buyer was someone in their late 40s or 50s who planned to live there part-time.
"In the past, people have bought these units and rented them out when they're not using them, but what most of these buyers intend to do is spend some time living there then lock them up when they're not," he said.
Q1 has a rival for the title of "the world's tallest residential building". Melbourne's Eureka Tower has 88 storeys and 554 apartments, and is 300m tall - 22.5m shorter than Q1.
But Eureka Tower has applied for permission to build a 50m telecommunications facility on top, making it 22.5m higher than Q1.
The Chicago-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat will be asked to rule on which is taller after both are finished.
"But they have ruled in the past that spires are permissable and telecom towers aren't, so we're confident," said Mr Abedian.
While Q1 has been a poster child for the Gold Coast property industry, evidence emerged this week that there were more and more high rises being built on the coast but less and less being sold.
A report on the Queensland property scene released this week shows that between the February and March quarter there was a 13 per cent increase in the number of units being constructed in high rises on the Gold Coast, but a 28 per cent drop in the number of unconditional sales.
The Midwood Investment Report claims that in the February quarter there were 2708 units under construction on the coast, but in the May quarter there were 3057.
But in an illustration of how the Gold Coast property market works, there are a staggering 5012 units being marketed on the Gold Coast - meaning that in addition to the units under construction, there are about 2000 units being sold "off the plan" before construction even starts on a building.