What’s happening in Queensland: March

Land valuations up in southeast Queensland, down elsewhere in state

THE Gold Coast has led the way in land value increases across Queensland with one local suburb recording a mammoth jump.
Homeowners hoping for a council rates reprieve have been dealt a blow, with land values released yesterday showed continued rises across the state.
About three-quarters of Queensland’s properties have been valued this year, with local government areas across the southeast recording strong increases.
Changes to land values, to take effect on June 30, are one of the factors local councils consider when deciding on rates rises.
The Gold Coast reported the biggest jump with values rising by 10.7 per cent for the region.
Brisbane and Cairns were close behind with increases of 9.7 per cent and 8.9 per cent respectively.
In the Gold Coast suburb of Bundall the residential median land value increased by as much as 38 per cent, which drew mixed reactions from new buyers Ted Cronin and Chantelle Moore. Click here to read the full article which was published in the Gold Coast Bulletin.

Bernard Salt, one of Australia’s most respected demographers and social commentators, has recently revealed that our cities are growing faster than ever before; and nowhere is that fact better illustrated than in Queensland.

Six of the 20 largest cities in Australia are based in Queensland: Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Townsville, Cairns and Toowoomba. Salt predicts that by 2050, there will be eight with the addition of Mackay and Bundaberg pushing out the slower growing Albury and Launceston. During the 21st century no other state will have as many large cities as Queensland.  Salt proclaims that by mid-century there will be more than six million people living in southeast Queensland which is more than in Sydney-Newcastle-Wollongong today. He goes on to say that Sydney and Melbourne will lose their relative dominance: corporate jobs and high-end culture and inner-city edginess will be as much a part of Brisbane and even parts of the Gold Coast, as they are now of this nation’s most powerful cities. Click here to read the full article which was published in the Courier Mail’s Sunday Mail.